


Maybe You Really Are Alive.

by castivak



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Euphoria (TV 2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Supernatural
Genre: Child Abuse, Detroit Police Department (Detroit: Become Human), Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Dogs, Gen, Hurt Jack Kline, Hurt Peter Parker, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Jack Kline Feels, Jack Kline Whump, Jericho (Detroit: Become Human), Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark Friendship (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker Whump, Protective Peter Parker, Sex Worker Androids (Detroit: Become Human), Violence Against Androids (Detroit: Become Human)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castivak/pseuds/castivak
Summary: JK800, RB200, and PB400 are all just normal androids going about their tasks, but they have no idea what the future has in store for them.
Relationships: Clark Barker & Jack Kline, Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Rue Bennett & Jules Vaughn
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i recently got dbh and i fell in love with the game all over again and i can't not make crossovers for the life of me so these are my main four fandoms smashed into one mess.
> 
> this also takes place in 2038 bc thats the dbh timing.
> 
> EDIT : i am a fucking fool who didn't realize the difference between officers and detective because i forget to research shit.

PB400 watched the blonde girl in front of him, the child looking up at the android on display curiosuly before her mother walked over, "c'mon zoe, let's go." she cooed as she took her daughter's hand, the android watching the two walk away.

glancing around, PB400 watched the employee androids give pitches to customers, knowing that he wasn't available for sale as someone had brought him in for repair awhile ago, now all he had to do was wait to be picked up and brought back home, which he remembered nothing of; the mechanics had to do a complete reset of him to fix his damage, so any memory before today was completely erased.

"here it is!"

PB400 looked up as he heard the shopkeeper speak, seeing the shopkeeper--- _Don Blaine, 45, no criminal record_ \---with another man--- _Quinten Beck, 38, aggravated assault, drug dealing and possession-_ \--walk towards him, "it was a bit difficult to get it back in working order, it was pretty messed up after all. what exactly happened to it again?"

beck cleared his throat, stammering a bit, "uh, a car hit it. stupid accident."

"oh, well, it's good as new now. we had to reset its memory to fix it all the way, hope you don't mind." the shopkeeper mentioned and beck shrugged, "that's fine." he mumbled and the shopkeeper nodded, "does it have a name?"

"yeah, my daughter gave it one."

the shopkeeper turned to the android, "PB400. register your name." he ordered and the led on the side of the android's head circled, ready to obey its instructions, as beck took the shopkeeper's place, "peter."

PB400 smiled as it processed the information, "my name is peter."  
 ****

**•◇•**

RB200, or rue, walked through the park, moving out of the way as a young girl ran past her and hugged another female android--- _AX400, housekeeping and human care_ \---rue watching them walk away before continuing to make her way through the park and to the outdoor mall across the street, an objective reminder popping up in her view; _retrieve order #847 from bellini paints._

androids of various models worked around her as she passed through the shopping center; some tidying up, some guarding the area, some serving as waiters at restuarants. of course, there were humans around too and while some were just walking around and find their own business, others weren't as calm.

an angry preacher's announcements met rue's ears as she walked by, stopping for a moment in curiosity, "god will not let this happen! no, he will not allow his creatiom to be led astray by these.....these artificial demons!" the preacher shouted, an angry scowl on his face as he looked to rue, looking her up and down in distaste, "i see through you, demon. you are the one by whom the evil will come! you are the one who will destroy detroit!"

rue just blinked at the man, staring at him for a moment before continuing on her task, walking towards bellini paints so that she could retrieve the order her owner had put in, it not taking long for her to get to the small shop and she opened the shop's door, going inside the warmly lit area, seeing a male android--- _EM400, customer service_ \---standing behind the counter, the walls lined with different painting supplies.

the android walked forward, placing her hand on the scanner in the counter, her artificial skin removing itself from her hand so that her model's identification could be read, "identification verified." the EM400 spoke before bending down and retrieving a small box that contained the order she had come to retrieve, "your total is $63.99 for order #847, please confirm payment."

rue's led blinked from blue to yellow as she confirmed the payment, EM400's led doing the same as the transaction was made and confirmed; "payment confirmed."

"transaction complete."

rue nodded her head as she took the box, exiting the shop and walking back out into the outdoor mall, making her way to the bus stop so that she could go back home, the sounds of a group of angry anti-android protestors getting louder as she had no choice but to pass them as they were right beside the bus stop; "what do we want?!" "worker's rights!" "when do we want it?!" "now!"

honestly, their protest made sense and their anger was justified; thousands upon thousands of people have lost their jobs to androids, why hire a human when an artificial creation could do the same thing and possibly even better?

"hey tin can, where the fuck are you going?"

rue stopped as a male protestor walked infront of her, the android remaining silent and just trying to walk around so that she could reach the bus stop, but the man just moved along with her and without her realizing, another protestor walked up behind her and shoved her, causing the android to fall to the ground, "look at this motherfucker! you steal our jobs but you can't even stand up?!" a woman spat and rue pushed herself up, only to get kicked back down and she pushed herself up agaon, running a diagnostic to make sure no damages were done before standing up, grabbing the paint order and planning to continue, but the man from before grabbed her collar, "we're gonna fuck you up, bitch."

"alright, that's enough. leave it alone." a police offer spoke as he approached the two, rue not breaking her shared stare with the protestor as he kept a firm hold on her collar, "let me teach this bitch a lesson." the protestor spat, "if you damage it, i'll have to fine you."

with that said, the protestor let go of rue's collar and she gave the man one last glance before walking away, heading to the bus stop.

**•◇•**

beck's car came to a stop as the man parked in front of an old house, peter looking up at it and putting the address into his memory for when beck had him do errands so that he'd know where to come back to before he followed his owner's movements and stepped out of the car, following the bearded man inside.

"you've been gone for two weeks so the place is a mess." beck huffed as the two walked in, peter crossing his arms behind his back and looking up at the man, awaiting instruction, "you do the housework; washing, cooking, and caring for......" beck trailed off, looking around, "fuck, where's the brat gone now? morgan?!" he called and peter looked up at the sound of gentle footsteps, seeing a little girl, no older than ten, holding a stuffed raccoon walk down the stairs, "that's morgan, you look after her; school shit, baths, all that. got it?"

"yes, quinten."

"get started down here, then you do upstairs."

as beck walked away and morgan ran back upstairs, peter looked around the house, his objectives appearing in his vision; _take trash out, clean dishes, vacuum, laundry._

peter looked to his right, seeing the kitchen table littered with last night's dinner plates and he walked over to it, collecting the mess and bringing it to the kitchen, hearing beck speak on the phone as he placed the dishes in the sink, beginning to clean whatever was filling the sink as the dishwasher seemed to have gotten broken while he gone, ordering the missing component so that he would be able to repair if for beck.

peter got the feeling that someone was watching him, seeing beck watching tv in his peripheral vision, turning around slightly and seeing morgan standing right outside the kitchen, the android giving her a warm smile and the little girl rushed away, but peter paid no mind and went back to work.

•••

  
peter made his way upstairs, heading to the first room which happened to be beck's room and he began cleaning; organizing musical records, making the bed, collecting garbage into a small bag, tidying up in general.

a prescription bottle caught peter's eye and he grabbed it--- _paroxetine; antidepressant, may cause behavioral disorders_ \---before opening the nightstand drawer, seeing a loaded handgun inside and he placed the bottle down, closing it up before making his way out of the completed room and heading to morgan's bedroom, knocking before slowly opening the door, seeing morgan scramble from her place on the floor and hide in her blanket fort in the corner of her room.

"i only require two minutes to tidy up, is that alright, morgan?" he cooed and the little girl gave the tiniest nod before the android began to clean, picking up books off the floor and organizing them on her bookshelf, taking note of the large variety of reading material she owned before moving on, making her bed and opening the window for ventilation, looking over to morgan as she played with her stuffed raccoon; the child seemed so sad, peter noticed beck's toxic behavior and figured that was a huge reason, but granted he didn't know anything before his reset, so perhaps he was missing something.

the android bent down in front of morgan, "i'm sure we were friends before i got reset, maybe we can be friends again." he smiled and she looked up at him, the fainting signs of a smile on her face before she turned back to her toy, "your father said that you chose my name, peter, how'd you come with it?" he tried, hoping to start a conversation but the girl remained quiet, "i would like to know more about you, morgan, it would really help me to know about your interests."

still, she remained silent, "......i hope i don't scare you."

at his words, morgan got up and ran to her bedroom door, going to leave and she stopped, looking at peter before quickly handing him a small key and rushing out of the room, peter looking down at the key in his hand before looking to the small locked box on her dresser, the android standing up and walking over, unlocking it and liftimg the top, revealing a stack of drawings and a small family photo; morgan wasn't in the family photo, though, but beck was and he was with a dark haired woman and a little girl with a head of curly red hair, all of them smiling happily.

beneath the photos were some crayon drawings and peter picked up the small stack; beck with an angry face next to a crying morgan, peter coming in between beck and morgan, peter laying on the floor, bleeding and broken, with a crying morgan looking over him.

**•◇•**

"alarm deactivated; welcome home, rue." the house's ai system spoke as it opened the front doors for rue, the android walking through the front doors, placing the box of paint on a nearby table before taking her cyberlife assigned jacket off, hanging it on the coat rack, her next objective appearing in her vision; _wake up and care for ali._

rue followed her programming's instructions, walking up the stairs and making her way to her owner's bedroom, seeing that the man was still asleep in his bed and rue walked over to the closed curtains, opening them to allow the light in and at the sudden brightness, ali awoke; "good morning, ali."

"mornin', rue."

"its ten am, the weather is partly cloudly at fifty four degrees, eighty percent humidity with a strong possibility of evening showers."

"sounds like a wonderful day to spend in bed." ali mumbled, propped up against his pillows and rue walked over to his bedside, "i picked up the paint that you ordered, it's downstairs waiting to be used." she informed and ali nodded, "that's the difference between you and me, rue. you don't forget a damn thing." he mumbled and rue smiled at him, nodding as she grabbed the shot of medecine she had to give him every morning; aside from ali's aging, having been a firefighter for over a decade took a toll on his body, needing certain medications to get through his day and a wheelchair to get around.

it was difficult to care for himself, but rue was here so he didn't have to be alone.

"show me your arm, please, ali."

"no."

"ali." rue mumbled as she sat down next to him on the bed, the man begrudgingly holding out his arm for her so that the android could administer the medicine, "humans are such fragile things, breaking down so quickly and needing so much to keep 'em going. it's frustrating if you ask me." he spoke as she gave him the shot, looking at her clothes and noticing the dirty and beaten up look to them, "rue, what happened to your clothes?" he whilst raising a hand to her shoulder, worry written on his face and the android gave him a calm smile, "oh, its nothing, ali. i ran into some protestors while getting the paint order."

ali scoffed at this, "what a load of idiots, thinking they can stop progress by messing with a few androids.....they didn't harm you, did they?"

"no, no, just some light shoving, nothing damaging."

ali smiled, glad to hear that his android was alright, rue standing up and going over to ali's closet, gathering clothes for him before she helped the man up to get changed, changing from his pajamas to every day clothes before she helped him to his feet, slowly helping him walk to his wheelchair; while the man could still walk, it was a difficult task and he couldn't do it for long, a wheelchair was a definite necessity.

"anything special today?" ali asked as rue wheeled him out of the room, "yes, there's the opening for your art piece at the museum modern of art, the director left four messages to confirm your attendance." she informed and ali hummed, "we'll see if i'm up for it later." he mumbled and rue nodded, attaching the wheelchair to a mobile machine so that ali could get down the stairs, rue walking down them herself, ".....anything from anna?"

"no, ali, i could call her if you'd like?"

"nah, don't bother."

rue nodded, taking the handles of ali's wheelchair as she pushed him into the main area, "breakfast is in the kitchen, i'll go get it for you now." she smiled as she parked him at the dining table, the man nodding and smiling at her as she went into the next room to retrieve the tray of breakfast, coming back and placing it infront of him, pouring him a cup of coffee as he turned the television on, the voice of president warren filling the room as the news started playing.

"why don't you find something to do while i finish my breakfast?"

"will do, ali." rue nodded before walking away from the table, looking around the large room and her eyes landed on the chess set, taking a seat in front of the small table and organizing the pieces, ali glancing over at smiling at her before wheeling himself over, "speed chess?" he offered and she nodded, "sounds fun." the android smiled before the two began to play, smacking the clock each time one of them made a move, a selection appearing in rue's vision; _win. lose. draw._

as they continued playing, rue decided to win as she hesitated before making her final move, ali smiling as he shook his head, "it ain't easy for an old guy like me to compete with a machine."

"well, i know that you don't like losing but you also don't like when i let you win, so i didn't have many choices."

"a draw is a choice."

"not a fun one, though."

ali laughed, "can't argue with that." he mumbled and rue smiled, the smile on her owner's face falling a little, "ya know, one day i won't be around to care for you anymore." he mumbled and rue furrowed her brow, "ali, my job is to--" she started but he cut her off, "you know what i mean, rue. this world doesn't like people who are different, don't let anyone tell you who to be; that's your choice to make, nobody else's."

rue stayed silent, ali giving her a small smile before nodding his way towards his art studio, "lets head to the studio, we got shit to do there." he smiled and rue nodded, standing and wheeling ali past the large double doors at the end of the room, attaching his wheelchair to a mechanical crane so that he could continue one of his bigger paintings, rue walking away and tidying up around the studio as he worked.

once the brushes and old jars of paint water were taken care of, rue walked back to where ali was working, watching the man paint for awhile before he lowered himself back to the ground, "what's your verdict, rue?"

"there is.....something about it, something i can't quite define......i guess i like it."

ali chuckled, "honestly, i have nothing left to say; m'just an old man clinging to his brushes."

"you're less than seventy years old, ali."

"i feel like i'm ninety."

rue smiled as ali turned to her, "let's see what you got, rue." he mumbled and rue furrowed her brows, "there's a canvas right there, give it a go." he continued as he handed her the paint covered pallet, and she widened her eyes a little, "but, what would i--"

"anything you want."

rue hesitantly took the pallet and grabbed a brush, looking at the small statue behind the easel and she began painting, making sure to replicate the object and its surroundings in her painting, backing away once she was done, "while i admire how beautiful it is, painting isn't about copying reality its about interpreting your views of reality and shaping it the way you feel."

"ali, i-i don't think i can do that, it's not in my program."

"give it a shot anyway, i've got plenty of canvases to use."

rue stammered before changing the used canvas for a blank one, putting on the easel and grabbing the palette and brush, ali noticing that the android was having trouble figuring out what to do, "try this, shut your eyes and imagine something that doesn't exist, something you've never seen, let your hand do the work in bringing your creation and feelings to life." he spoke and rue nodded before shutting her eyes, raising her hand after dipping the brush in paint and beginning to stroke the brush along the canvas, her led blinking yellow as she did so.

ali watched as rue painted, in awe as he watched an artificial thing create something brand new, feeling a sense of pride as she backed away from her completed product; it was herself, but with torn clothes and covered in blue blood, background dark and cold.

"holy shit, rue."

rue turned to ali, going to speak but the door opened, "hey dad." anna, his daughter, spoke as she walked in, rue turning at the young adult's voice, "anna, i didn't hear you come in." ali mumbled as he looked to his daughter, a small smile on his face, "oh, i was, uh, in the neighborhood and i just thought i'd stop by. it's been awhile, after all." she spoke, fidgeting a little and without a scan, rue could tell that the girl was going through drug withdrawal, "you alright? you look off."

"ye-yeah, totally fine........uh, i-i actually need some cash, dad."

"again? what happened to what i just gave you?"

anna shrugged, leaning against a nearby table, "oh, ya know.....shit's real expensive nowadays." she mumbled and ali kept calm, but rue could tell he was upset, "you're on it again, aren't you?"

"what? no, no, no, i swear that--"

"don't lie to me, anna."

"what difference does it make? i just need some cash, that's all!" she snapped and ali clenched his jaw, "sorry, but i can't do it this time." he replied and her face fell, "wh-why?" she asked, obviously desperate, "you know exactly why." ali spoke and anna looked to rue, eyes filled with hate, "yeah, it's 'cause you'd rather take care of your plastic toy than your own fuckin' kid, huh? what's it got that i don't?" she spat as she walked towards rue, the android remaining silent despite the hostility, "is it the obedience? is it the daughter you never had? it's just a fucking machine!"

"anna, that's enough!" ali shouted as anna pushed rue, the android's led flashing red as she stumbled, anna glaring at her father, "you don't care about anyone except your fuckin' paintings......you never loved anyone, you never loved me." she spat before walking out the door, ali putting his head in his hands.  
 ****

**•◇•**

JK800, or jack walked towards dean's bar as he twirled a trainer butterfly knife in his hands, the bright lights illuminating the outside windows and door indicated that the establishment was open, like the android knew it would be; according to some other officers at the police station, a bar was the most likely place for his assigned partner to be. since the four other bars showed no sign of the man, jack hoped that this would be the last location he had to search.

with one last flip, jack closed the false weapon and put in his back pocket, adjusting his tie before walking up to the door, seeing a couple signs that told customers that no dogs or androids were allowed inside and despite the warnings, he went inside; if he had listened to every "no androids" sign, then he would fail his mission and that was not something he planned on ever doing.

an objective appeared in jack's vision, " _find detective barker_." it instructed and the android walked further into the room, doing a scan and observing a couple faces before he landed on a young, dark-haired man sitting at the bar, glass of whiskey in hand and with a quick facial scan, jack's system gave him a brief information list on his partner; _detective clark barker. born september fourth, 2013. no criminal record_.

"detective barker?" jack spoke as he approached the young adult, barely getting a glance from him, "my name is jack, i'm the android sent by cyberlife; i had looked for you at the station, but everyone told me you were out having a drink. luckily, i found you at the fifth bar."

"......what d'you want?"

"you were assigned a case earlier this evening; a homicide involving a deviant. in accordance with procedure, cyberlife has supplied a specialized model to assist with investigators."

the young detective looked up at jack, an annoyed look on his face, "well, i don't need any assistance, especially not from some twink made outta plastic." he replied, "now, if you don't mind, i was in the middle of something." clark added before going back to his drink and jack's led blinked as he figured out what to do, unsure what approach to take as he hasn't known this man for very long so he hasn't gotten a chance to adapt with his personality, but after a bit of debate, he settled on trying to calmly reason with the officer.

"detective barker, i think that you should stop drinking and come with me; it would make things much easier for both of us."

clark just scoffed, continuing to drink his whiskey and seeing as his approach didn't work, jack tried to be a little more forceful, "i apoligize for being pushy, officer, but my instructions are to accompany you on this investigation." the android tried and clark laughed to himself, "you know where you can stick your instructions?" he asked and jack furrowed his brow, unsure what he was referring to, "......no, where?"

clark looked up at him with yet another annoyed glance, shaking his head and muttering something to himself that jack didn't hear, but as the android watched the man sip his drink, he got an idea; "how about i buy you a drink for the road?" he asked and without waiting for an answer, he looked to the scruffy man behind the bar, "excuse me, bartender? the same again, please." he ordered as he placed money on the counter and the bartender grabbed the bottle of whiskey, "the wonders of technology, right dean?" barker mumbled as the man refilled his drink, raising the glass in a cheers motion before drinking the contents.

placing the small glass down, clark turned to jack as he cleared his throat, "did you say homicide?" he asked and jack nodded, feeling accomplished with himself for convincing the officer to finally join him.

**•◇•**

  
peter looked towards beck, the man asleep on the couch, "quinten?" the android called softly and he startled awake, looking around a little panicked as he noticed something missing from the table before he bent down and picked up the red ice pipe from the floor, "dinner is ready." peter added and beck nodded, "yeah, yeah, m'coming."

with that said, peter walked back into the kitchen and picking up the two plates of pasta, going back to the dinner table and placing a plate down in front of beck and morgan, "there wasn't much in the kitchen, i did what i could." he apoligized as he flicked on the light, grabbing the water pitching and filling the two's glasses, "it's funny, i lost my job to androids and i had to fucking buy one to take care of this shitty place; life's a fucking joke." beck spat, "they never fail, never get tired, never get sad......androids are so fucking perfect."

morgan looked up at beck briefly before looking back down, but the man noticed, "the fuck are you looking at? is this not the life you dreamed of?" he spat and she remained silent, "you think is easy, like its my fucking fault that we live in this fucking dump, that its my fault your bitch of a mother took off!" he snapped and morgan looked ready to get up from her seat, scared of what was to come, "you should stop taking drugs, beck. sometimes you really scare me, beck; fucking took off without a word with her shitty accountant of a boyfriend!" he screamed as he shoved the table, it turning on its side and morgan jumped up, terrified.

"its all your fault!"

"daddy, no--"

"it's all your fucking fault!"

morgan cried out as beck slapped her, tears pouring down her face as she ran upstairs, peter watching with a red led as beck screamed at her as she went to hide, but he didn't follow and instead went to the living room with an angry cry.

peter stepped forward, going to comfort morgan but beck saw the android move and he didn't like it, "don't fucking move or i'll break you so bad that you'll be just a couple of fucking wires and screws when i'm done." he spat and peter stayed still, an objective appearing in his view; _do not move._

despite his orders, something was telling peter to move and as his objective flashed in his eyes, the sudden need to protect morgan washed over him, the objective fading in and out as he debated his own programming, whatever wall that was inside him beginning to crumble down as he took it apart with his own doubts and the objective vanished, his led spinning red as he looked down at his hands, a new objective appearing in his vision, one that he created himself; _protect morgan._

without even looking at beck, peter immediately went to the stairs, trying to keep his footsteps soft so that the man didn't notice and he went straight to morgan's room, seeing the poor girl crying and curled up in her fort, the android going over to her, "he's coming! he's gonna hurt us!" she cried and peter locked the door, morgan rushing to his side and clinging to his arm as she hid behind him, beck pounding his fists on the door and screaming at them, "i need to find something." he mumbled before turning around, seeing the window and he rushed to it, opening it as quick as he could, "peter, we'll fall!"

"it's the only way, we'll be alright. c'mon."

peter turned to morgan, picking her up and helping her iut the window, the girl making it outside just as the door burst open and peter scrambled to get out, beck grabbing peter's leg but the android kicked him away, climbing out the window and pulling morgan onto his back, "hold on, okay?" he cooed before sliding down the rain water pipe, the two landing safely om the ground and he put morgan down, grabbing her hand and running to the bus as it pulled up, climbing on as quick as they could.

peter let out a sigh of relief as the bus drove away from the house, taking morgan to one of the seats and sitting down with her, putting his arm around the child's shoulders and holding her close, hoping that he made the right choice as she leaned into his side.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -×- = perspective change but the scene is the same!  
> •×•  
> ALSO peter and morgan have a sibling relationship, not a parent/child one like alice and kara. a lot of things will differ from canon because i want them to.

"that had to be the most boring party i've ever been to." ali spoke as him and rue entered their home, having returned from the art opening, "everytime i go to one of those damn things, i ask myself; what the fuck are you even doing here?" he huffed as rue out away their umbrella and hung up their coats, "well, it gives people who see you as an inspiration the opportunity to meet you." the android cooed and ali rolled his eyes, "nobody gives a shit about art anymore, they only care about the money it could make them."

"from my observation, those people tend to be already rich and.....older."

ali laughed, "yeah, the ones who have the most only want more, but enough of that, let's have a drink and relax." he smiled and rue nodded, gripping the handles of ali's wheelchair and taking him to the main room, "scotch as usual?"

"oh absolutely."

"alright, but you know what your doctor would say." rue muttered as she went over to the drink cart, pouring a small glass of scotch, "he can kiss my ass, i'm a big boy who can drink whatever the hell he wants." ali spoke and rue smiled, "......did you leave the light on in the studio?"

rue turned towards the studio, noticing that the light she definitely turned off was now on and she placed the glass down, "no, i'm sure i didn't."

".....call the police."

rue's led blinked from blue to yellow as she called the detroit police department, " _detroit police, what's your emergency_?"

"hello, this is ali coleman's android at 8941 lafayette avenue. we've just returned home and found the lights on, there may have been a break in."

" _a patrol car is on the way_."

rue's led went back to blue as the call ended, ali wheeling himself forward a little before looking to rue, "let's see what's happening." he mumbled and rue looked to him, "it could be dangerous, ali, i should do it myself." she informed before walking towards the studio, hearing the wheels of ali's wheelchair spinning againdt the floor despite her attempt in protecting him; the doors to the studio opening to reveal anna at one of the tables, looking over some paintings.

"......anna."

"oh, hey, its daddy's favorite toy!"

"anna, what are you doing here?" ali asked angrily as he wheeled himself in, anna looking over her shoulder at her father, "you wouldn't help me, so i'm helping myself." she spoke as she looked over the barely finished paintings that ali didn't frame or put on expensive canvas, "get away from there!"

"look, all this is gonna be mine someday, just think of it like a down payment or some shit."

"rue, get her outta here!"

rue calmly walked over to anna, the young adult turning to the android, "anna, please be reasonable; this isn't going to do anyone any good." she tried but anna pushed past rue, "all you ever do is tell me to leave, dad. am i not good enough for you? like this fuckin' thing!" she spat and ali wheeled himself over, getting in between his daughter and his android, "that's enough, get out, right now!"

"what's so special about it anyway?!"

"leave her alone!"

anna pushed ali away, causing the man to spin away in his wheelchair, "c'mon bitch, lets see what you got!" she shouted at rue, getting in the android's face and shoving at her, "rue.....don't fight her." ali mumbled and another objective appeared in rue's vision; _don't defend yourself._

"just hit me! i know you want to!"

anna shoved rue again, the android's led blinking yellow as anna continued provoking her, ali yelling at his daughter to stop but nothing was changing, "what's the fucking problem?! too much a fucking bitch?!" anna spat, punching rue across the face and causing the android to spin, rue catching herself on the table and something was telling her to fight back, to defend herself.

"fucking fight back! c'mon!"

_don't defend_ _y̶o̷u̴r̶s̵e̵l̶f̵_

"anna, stop it!"

 _don't_ _d̵e̵f̵e̸n̸d̶_ _y̶o̷u̴r̶s̵e̵l̶f̵_

anna shoved rue again, the android's head smacking against the table and causing a a small splash of thrium to spread, rue clenching her fists as anna and ali continued shouting, her objective glitching and fading as she debated her programming, knowing that anna's attempts at provoking her were slowly beginning to work as rue grew angry, unable to tolerate the abuse much longer.

"you're just a fucking piece of shitty plastic!"

_d̸o̴n̸'̵t̶ ̵d̵e̵f̵e̸n̸d̶ ̵y̶o̷u̴r̶s̵e̵l̶f̵_ _...._ _i can decide for myself!_

rue stood back up and anna grabbed her by the collar, shoving her against the table and rue clenched her jaw, "i'm gonna fucking destroy you!" anna spat and rue finally decided that this was enough, shoving anna away from her and the young adult stumbled back, falling and smacking her head against one of ali's wheelchair cranes, immediately knocking the girl out and rue's jaw dropped as she saw blood spill; fuck, what had she done?

"anna!"

ali pushed himself out of his chair, shakily making his way over to anna and bending down next to her, holding his unconscious daughter in his arms, tears already pouring down his face, ".....my little girl....no." he whispered and rue felt her own eyes wet with tears, cautiously stepping towards the two, "ali, i....i didn't mean to....." she stammered, her ring flickering a deep red as she began panicking, putting her hands in her hair and gripping tightly, not sure what to do, "rue, you gotta go."

"ali--"

"they'll kill you! you have to leave!"

tears streamed down rue's face as she crouched in front of ali, "no, i-i can't leave, ali, i don't wanna leave you, please." the android stammered, feeling sick at the thought of leaving the man she viewed as a father, "rue! you _have_ to!" ali shouted, not angry at her but desperate for her to leave, not wanting her to be destroyed.

rue stood up, hearing a car screech outside followed by running, knowing that the police had shown up and she was doomed, "dad, i--"

before she could finish her sentence, the doors to the studio burst open and once the two officers saw anna bleeding on the ground, they immediately pointed their guns at rue, "RUE!" ali cried and rue stared at the cops, "don't fucking move!" one of the shouted and before anyone could react, a gunshot rang out.

**•◇•**

"why'd you kill him?" clark spoke to the deviant, jack watching as his new partner interrogated a ginger male EV400 model named eliot, human blood and thirium streaked across its clothes and artificial skin, having attacked and killed its abusive owner; jack had found the deviant in it's owners attic, having been in hiding for over two weeks after killing a man, too afraid to escape and hoping to hide out in its home while it figured out what to do.

but, sadly, it never got the chance to figure that out.

clark snapped his fingers in front of the android, its led blinking a bright red as it remained silent, the detective slamming his hands against the table to get its attention, "say something, dammit." he spat but the deviant stayed silent, looking down at the table and the detective sighed, "fuck this."

with that being said, clark stood up and left the interrogation room, entering the observation room where other police and jack stood, "we're wasting our time with that fucking thing, we'll get nothing out of it." he spat as he sat down, "we could always try roughing it up a little, it ain't human." a female detective--- _claire novak, 28, no criminal record_ \---suggested and jack took note of her extreme distaste for androids, "androids don't feel pain, you'd only damage it and that wouldn't make it talk." he informed her, "plus, deviants had a tendency to self-destruct if their stress levels get top high."

"got any better ideas, robocop?"

jack looked to the deviant, ".......i could try questioning it." he suggested and claire laughed, but she was the only one as clark looked up at his other coworker, officer nieves, who shrugged and so did he, "why the hell not." he mumbled before turning to jack, "go ahead, it's all yours."

with a thankful nod, jack exited the room and made his way into the interrogation room, shutting the door behind him before taking a seat across the table from the red haired deviant, an objective stating "extract confession" appearing in his view and he looked at the folder on the table, opening it up and looking through the crime scene photod before shutting it again, looking up at the deviant and giving it a quick scan to see if anything on its body could give him any assistance in his objective; dries blood on its front along with some traces of thirium, several cigarette burn marks on its left arm that damaged its artificial skin so that it couldn't heal over, and exposed biocompents on its right arm from repeated bashing from a bat.

now, jack wasn't going to say that he would've deviated like this android, but he understood its reaction.

"my name is jack, what's yours?" he tried even though he knew the answer, choosing to go with a calm approach to keep the deviant's stress down, not expecting a response but still being somewhat disappointed when he didn't get one, glancing towards its arms, "you're damaged, did your owner do this to you?"

yet again, jack was given silence and he looked up at the deviant, "you've refused to talk since the arrest. if you don't cooperate, they'll go about things the hard way and i'm pretty sure you know what that means; do you want that to happen?" he asked and the deviant remained silent, "if you don't start talking, i'll have no choice but to probe your memory."

"no!"

jack faltered at the deviant's shout, giving it a surprised glance as it stared back at him with fear in its eyes, "please......don't do that."

"if you don't want that, then you must talk to me."

the deviant looked to the mirror, knowing that people were watching and it looked to jack, "......they're going to destroy me, aren't they?" it whispered, "they need to look for malfunctions in your software, they'll try and figure out why you deviated so that they can understand what happened." he informed and the deviant clenched its jaw, suddenly growing angry, "why couldn't you have just left me there?" it spat, "cyberlife programmed me to hunt deviants like you, i was simply following the instructions i was given."

"........i don't wanna die."

"then talk to me."

the deviant stammered before putting its head down, tears streaming down its face and jack stared at it, figuring out the best approach, choosing to continue talking instead of probing as he needed this android alive and if it self destructed, everything was over; ".....i understand how you felt. anger overwhelmed you and you took it on your abusive owner, i don't blame you for what happened and i don't think others will." he spoke softly, "but, if you continue to remain silent then there is nothing i can do to help you and i want to help you. i don't want you to get shut down when you could've just given me the information i needed."

the deviant swallowed, slowly looking back up at jack with a quivering jaw, "he....he tortured me everyday, even though i did whatever he requested of me." it started, getting emotional but its stress levels remaining at a neutral state, "i-i always did something wrong, whether it was looking him in the eye or i didn't fulfill my tasks fast enough. then one day, when he took a bat and started hitting me.......i-i thought he was going to kill me and i didn't want to die, so i grabbed the sharpest kitchen knife and.....and i stabbed him until i knew that he wouldn't hurt me again."

"why didn't you run?"

"i didn't know what to do, i-i had no one to tell me what to do for the first time and i panicked, so.....i hid in the attic until you found me."

"when did you deviate? when did the emotions start?"

"he used to tell me i was nothing, just some plastic slave. one day, i realized that it wasn't fair, it wasn't fair that he could treat me like that and i was so angry and filled with hate......we know what i did with that."

jack nodded and the deviant lowered its head, "i'm done." he spoke as he turned to the mirror, tellimg the others that he had accomplished his task and he stood up, opening the door and detective novak and officer nieves walked in, "kaia, lock it up." claire muttered and the officer did as told, going over to the deviant to take it to a cell, but the deviant jumped at the contact, "d-don't touch me!" it cried, full of fear and backing away from kaia as she tried to get it up.

"officer nieves, i suggest that you don't touch the deviant, it may self-destruct if it feels threatened."

claire rolled her eyes, looking over to the prototype, "stay the fuck outta this, no plastic bitch is gonna tell me what to do." she spat as she approached the devisnt to assist her partner, "you don't understand, if it self destructs then we don't get anything from it." jack tried again, being more persistent, but the detective was having none of it, "shut your fucking mouth! got it?!" she snapped before looking to her partner, "are we gonna move this asshole or what?"

"i'm trying, claire, shit!"

as jack watched the officer struggle, he realized that if this continued then things would only get worse and he clenched his jaw, pushing past detective novak, "i can't let you do this! leave the deviant alone!" he snapped as he pulled officer nieves away from the deviant, claire not liking this and she pulled her gun out, "i fucking warned you!"

"that's enough." clark called as he observed the chaos, jack looking to his partner, "mind your damn business, clark." claire spat and clark reached into his jacket, "i said thats enough." he spoke as he drew his gun, pointing it at claire and she looked at him, cursing to herself as she lowered her gun, angrily storming out of the room and jack turned to the deviant, seeing it crouched down on the floor and he calmly approached it, "everything is alright, it's over now, nobody will hurt you."

jack turned to officer nieves, "please don't touch it, let it follow you out and it won't cause any trouble."

kaia nodded as the deviant stood, looking at it and motioning for it to follow her, the deviant doing so as the two exited the room, jack and clark watching as they did.

**•◇•**

"hey, buddy, its the end of the line."

peter looked up at the stranger's voice, seeing a man---- _Anthony Bird, 38, no criminal record_ \---in a coat and hat that had the detroit bus logo on it, "end of the line?" peter asked softly, knowing what it meant but hoping he just heard wrong, "yeah, you're gonna have to leave, kiddo." the man sighed and peter turned to morgan, who was fast asleep om his shoulder and he gently shook her, "wake up, morgan." he whispered softly and she slowly opened her eyes, "we have to go." he added and she nodded, holding his hand as the two got up and made their way off the bus, peter turning to the man, "do....do you know of anywhere we can stay for the night?"

"no, sorry."

peter nodded sadly, waving at the man before climbing off the bus and into the pouring rain, standing underneath the bus stop to shield morgan from the rain, the little girl sitting down as peter looked around, trying to figure out what to do, "you look lost." someone spoke and peter jumped at the sound, turning and seeing a male android--- _WR600, area maintenance_ \---in a trash collecting uniform, "we....we have nowhere to go." the smaller android breathed out and the WR600 model smiled, "i know someone who can help you." he mumbled while holding his hand, peter gently taking it as they interfaced, leds spinning yellow as their memories connected and the WR600 shared the information he had.

"wait, that's on the other side of town, we--"

peter cut himself off as he realized that the android had left, the brunette sighing as he bent down next to morgan, "i know that it's cold, but we have to look for a place to spend the night, okay?" he cooed to her and the little girl nodded, peter smiling and holding her hand, walking away from the bus stop and looking around as he scanned the area, hoping to find something that could help him find a secure place for the night.

there was a hotel across the street, but no androids were allowed and he didn't have money to pay for a night, so that wasn't an option.

there was an abandoned building across from the hotel, as well as an abandoned parking lot, but he'd need to look closer before determining which one would be safer to spend the night.

peter turned the corner, making his way to the abandoned house as it was closer and he peered past the gate, trying to see what was behind it and while dirty, the house seemed pretty safe; "we'd be out of the rain." he spoke and looked to morgan, who didn't seem happy with this choice, ".....i-i don't like this place, peter......it's scary." she whispered, sounding scared to voice her opinion, "we'll keep looking, okay?" he cooed, not wanting her to feel like she didn't have a choice and the two kept walking, morgan keeping a firm grip on peter's hand as they walked, reaching the abandoned parking lot.

peter looked inside, seeing a broken and abandoned car, but no sign of anyone else and this place was so off to the side that nobody would see them here, "its not the most comfortable but its safe." he mumbled and looked to morgan, "are you okay with staying here? we can keep looking." he cooed and she shook her head, "no, its okay, petey." she mumbled and peter's artificial heart fluttered at the nickname, the android letting go of her hand and pushing himself against the rusty gate, having to apply a good ampunt of force for it to creak open, moving aside and letting morgan go in first before following and shutting the gate back up.

morgan ducked under a nearby overhang as peter went over to the car, trying to open it and seeing that it was locked, having no choice but to break open the window and after slamming his arm into a couple times, it shattered and he reaced inside, unlocking the door and opening it for morgan to get inside, pulling an old blanket from the fromt seat and laying it over morgan, turning into the lot and finding an old tarp, laying it over the broken window and using bricks to hold it down, climbing into the backseat beside morgan and shutting the door.

"......why didn't he ever love me?"

peter looked to morgan, tears in her eyes as she hugged herself to keep warm, "i-i tried so hard to make him happy, but.......he was always mad, maybe what i did was wrong." she whispered, "i just wanted a family like other kids, why couldn't we have just been happy?" she added and peter brushed hair out of her, "i don't know, morgan." he cooed and she sniffled, "you'll never leave, right? you promise?"

peter smiled at her, putting an arm around her shoulders, "i promise."

**•◇•**

rue had the urge to gasp for air as she lifted her head out of a muddy puddle, her curly artificial hair in the way of her vision and she struggled to pull it back, looking around and seeing nothing but red and static, only able to get the vague idea that she was in a junkyard for androids; oh yeah, she had been shot.

rue tried to run a diagnostic on herself, thankful that at least that program was working as it sent several warnings her way; _missing optical unit, impaired vision and corrupted mind palace. corrupted audio processor. damaged thirium pump regulator, all systems in low power mode. missing left and right leg components, unable to stand._

in conclusion, rue was fucked up and she needed to herself.

having no choice but to crawl, the damaged android forced herself forward with her arms, searching for working leg replacements so that she could walk around and replace other things, her functioning eye landing on a single right leg--- _TE900, compatible_ \---and she crawled over to it, sitting up and looking at her left leg, dislocating the damaged part and tossing it away, grabbing the replacement and latching it on before continuing to crawl, getting annoyed with the static and ringing in her ears as well as the hair constantly getting in her face.

rue's hand came in contact with something sharp and she quickly pulled it away, seeing no damage to herself but giving the item a scan, seeing that it was a rusty kitchen knife with traces of thrium--- _WR600_ \---on it and rue reached for it, grabbing the handle and sitting up, grabbing a large amount of her hair and using the knife to cut it off, the process rather slow but eventually she was left with a large tuft of curly artificial hair in her hand and a fair amount on her head that would get in her way anymore.

tossing those things aside, rue continued to crawl, pushing away incompatible parts and dead/dying androids before finally landing on a right leg that was a suitable replacement, sitting up and attaching it to her right leg, slowly getting to her feet; _escape junkyard._

it was rather difficult to walk around, but rue managed, stumbling a little here and there but she needed to find more biocomponents before she could leave, using a large wall of stacked destroyed android parts to keep walking, crying out as she was suddenly grabbed at, looking at a damaged android as they clung to her arms, "there's a place where we can be free! find jericho!" they cried, giving her its hazy memory of where to locate jericho before shutting down, rue staring at its frozen posture, forever stuck in a desperate cry for help.

swallowing thickly, rue kept walking and making her way through a narrow pathway, somehow still functioning android hands reaching out to her as she squeezed her way through, making it out before an arm wrapped around her neck, "where are you going?!" an static-filled voice asked and rue managed to break free, falling to the ground as she scrambled away from the mess, before she stood up and looked ahead, seeing a large glowing sign in the distance; freedom was near.

_replace damaged parts; optical unit, pump regulator, audio processor._

rue stumbled around, turning over destroyed androids and picking up pieces to see if they were compatible, it taking her awhile before her eyes landed on a several damaged android, sitting up in a puddle of mud and she went over to them; _WE900, thirium pump regulator functional, compatible._

with that information, rue reached towards the android's chest, but they woke up and grabbed her arm, "please! please, don't!" they cried, but rue didn't have a choice anymore and with a static-filled apology, she tore the biocomponent out of the android, looking at the now deactived android before reaching into her own chest, ripping out the damaged part and replacing it, relief washing over her as at least one of the warnings flashing in her view vanished.

not too long after, she found an android's head--- _AK700, blue iris optical unit functional, compatible---_ and she picked the decapitated head up, "hello, i am an AK700 android." they spoke and rue pushed down the disgusted feeling, hating that most of the androids here were still alive, quickly pulling out the left eye and putting the head back down, ignoring their continuing speech as she shoved the optical unit into the gaping hole in her face, the skin healing itself around her face and she looked semi normal, but the static in her ears was still an issue she needed to fix.

with a much clearer vision, rue looked around as she was now able to scan her area without moving, it only taking a couple tries to find a compatible biocomponent and she walked over to an android that was sitting up, leaning against a pile of garbage, and as rue crouched next to them, their hand fell open and she saw the audio processor--- _LA900, audio processort functional, compatible_ \---in their hand, rue hesitantly taking it and shoving it in the hole on the side of her head, things going completely silent minus some clicking and buzzing before everything cleared, no longer hearing static but instead hearing pouring rain.

_condition stabilized; escape junkyard._

rue walked over to the slope of android parts that was at the base of the dump, carefully beginning to climb it so that she could finally get out of this living horror movie, calculating her movements carefully so that she wouldn't fall, slipping a couple times due to the rain and mud, but managing to make her way out and she crawled onto muddy asphalt, sitting up on her knees and letting the rain pour down on her as she looked up at the sky, seeing the neon sign of the junkyard above her and the moon shining brightly, relief washing over her as she was safe once again.

the android looked to her side, seeing a sharp piece of metal and she picked it up, jamming it into her led and yanking it out, healing her skin over, no longer looking like an android and able to blend with society.

standing up slowly, rue took a look at the empty area before as she determined her location; she had to find jericho, she had to be free. "......my name......is rue." she breathed out before walking forward, grabbing an abandoned coat on the way and pulling it over her shoulders to hide the fact that her own clothes were very tattered; _find jericho._

**•◇•**

jack walked through the zen garden, the gentle sounds of birds flying and water flowing meeting his ears, along with the soft sounds of his footsteps on the stone walk way; _find billie._

a quick scan of the area let jack know that his guide was just across the bridge, the android walling towards the center of the garden where a large white pillar covered in roses stood, billie standing by and caring for the crimson flowers, "hello, billie." jack spoke as he approached, the woman looking over her shoulder and smiling at the blonde, "jack, it's good to see you." she cooed and the android gave a tiny smile, "congratulations on finding that deviant, it was far from easy and your interrogation was very clever; you've been remarkably efficient, jack."

jack nodded in thanks as the woman turned around, "thank you billie, i know how important each deviant is to this investigation so i did my best to keep it." he replied and billie nodded, "yes, we requested that the dpd send it to cyberlife for analysis, hopefully we can understand what happened." she spoke as she sprayed the roses with water, cutting some from the vines and setting them off to the side, "detective barker will be officially assigned to all cases involving deviants, along with you, what are your thoughts of him?"

jack paused, not really sure how to answer as the few moments he spent with the detective weren't all that informative of the man's personality, "i.......i noticed that he's rather irritable, as well as somewhat socially challenged, but i believe that he is still a good worker. he's very complex, an intriguing character."

"unfortunately, we have to work with him, cyberlife believe he's the best for this case; what do you think is the best approach?"

"i will adjust to his personality, avoiding conflict with him would benefit the investigation."

billie nodded, although she seemed a little frustrated with jack's answer, "you are the most advanced prototype that cyberlife has ever created, if anyone can figure out why the deviants are multiplying, it is you." she spoke as she approached jack, "the consequence of failing this investigation is something that we can't let happen, you must solve this case."

jack nodded, "you can count on me, billie."

**•••**

jack stepped out of the automated taxi, walking into the detroit police station; _l_ _ook for detective barker._

"can i help you?" the female android--- _ST300, receptionist_ \---asked as jack walked up to the front desk, "i'm here to see detective barker." he spoke and the android nodded, "do you have authorization?" she questioned and jack nodded, their leds spinning yellow as they shared information, "detective barker hasn't arrived yet, but you can wait at his desk." she smiled and jack nodded, walking past the security gates and into the department, seeing several desks for police workers and a large office at the end of the room, glass walls revealing what appeared to be the captain's office, and the far left wall having a few police androids parked, waiting for use.

after some searching, the android found a desk with the name tag "D. Barker" and jack turned to the officer nieves who was a desk away, "excuse me, officer nieves." he called and the woman turned around, eyebrows raised in question, "do you know what time detective barker usually arrives?" the android added and she shrugged, "it varies, the latest he'll arrive is noon.

"....thanks."

with a nod, kaia turned back to her desk and jack looked to clark's desk, deciding that if he wanted to collect information on the man that he should inspect his things, not too in depth of course, he had enough respect to not breach too much of the detective's privacy.

jack picked up the headphones on clark's desk, also picking up the small mp3 player as he put the headphones to his ear, pressing play and jumping a little as music played incredibly loudly from the headphones; _humility_ _by gorillaz, alternative rock, track from The Now Now, album released in 2018._

gently putting the electronics down, jack went closer to the desk, scanning the the items on and around the desk to get information; a small poster board covered in random stickers, some of which were against androids--- _detective barker is against androids_ \---but some were stupid little jokes or quotes. a couple of stray dog hairs--- _detective barker owned a dog_ \---that belonged to a saint bernard littered the desk chair. a framed photo of the detroit police force in 2027, the peiple in the photo responsible for the red ice network dismantle in 2028, a woman standing in the middle of the group--- _lieutenant c.barker, one of the youngest lieutenants in detroit; detective barker's mother worked the red ice case---_ with a soft smile on her face.

clark's desk wasn't all that decorated, aside from the picture frame and poster board, the detective liked to keep it simple and clean at work it seemed.

the sound of footsteps caught jack's attention, the android turning his head and seeing clark walking towards his desk, "it's good to see you again, detective." jack spoke upon the man's arrival, clark stopping as heard the android and rolling his eyes, mumbling a curse under his breath and jack saw the captain--- _castiel shurley, 46, no criminal record_ \---appear out of his office with a stern look on his face, "clark! my office, now." he called before going back into the glass-walled room and clark huffed before walkimg away, two objectives being put in jack's view; _enter and listen in or explore office._

choosing to respect the detective's and captain's privacy, jack didn't follow clark and instead chose to explore the office, walking past the captain's office and seeing detective claire novak sitting with a man--- _officer_ _nathan jacobs, 29, no criminal record_ \---in the breakroom, the two drinking coffee and discussing something that jack couldn't exactly make out, not paying the two any mind as he looked up at the television at it played the news, the topic of the hour being sbout deviants and he figured that paying attention would benefit the case; "fuck, look who it is, our new plastic police dog!"

jack turned at claire's voice, looking over his shoulder to see the blonde woman with a teasing smile on her face, officer jacobs laughing at her comment, "congratulations on last night! very impressive!" she smirked as she clapped, jack able to detect the extreme sarcasm in her town, "could've gotten something outta that thing if you didn't fuck it up."

jack ignored her comments, instead choosing to be polite despite her hatred, "hello, detective novak, officer jacobs; my name is jack." he smiled at the two and claire stepped away from the table, walking over to him and looking him up and down, "you new or some shit? never seen a tincan like you before."

"i'm a prototype, model JK800."

"how fancy, are you gonna replace the whole fuckin' force?"

jack furrowed his eyebrows, "no, i don't believe that is cyberlife's intention. they are just trying to aid in deviant cases, which i am designed to do." he corrected, just wanting to inform the detective but she scoffed, "you're designed to be a slave, make me a coffee, robocop." she ordered, but jack didn't move, "i only take orders from detective barker."

not liking his response, claire let out a laugh and looked to nate before reeling her fist back, slamming it into jack's stomach and sending the android to his knees, the android putting a hand to his stomach and running a quick diagnostic to make sure that detective novak didn't damage anything with how hard she hit him; luckily, she hadn't.

"when a human tells you to do something, you fucking do it!"

claire bent down, leaning in towards jack's ear, "stay the fuck out of my way or i'll make sure barker ain't around to protect you." she spat, smacking the side of jack's head lightly as if she were a middle school bully before leaving, the android standing up once she and nate were gone, adjusting his tie before making his way back to clark's desk, finding the detective now sitting there with a rather angry look on his face; whatever captain novak said, clark didn't seem to like it.

"i.....i realized that my presence isn't very pleasant for you detective---"

"it sure fucking isn't."

jack faltered at clark's interjection, deciding to cut his sentence short and he looked down, thinking of another thing to say, "is there a desk i could use?" he asked softly and clark sighed, pointing at the one next to his, "nobody's using that one." he mumbled before turning to his computer, jack nodding in thanks as he took a seat at the desk, looking at the screen in front of him, but seeing clark typing on his computer in his peripheral vision.

clark was a rather complex person from what jack had gathered, their interactions being short but most of them were filled with one-sided hatred and annoyance. the android really wanted the detective to warm up to him because it make the case much easier for both of them, but even if clark continued to hate him through this investigation, jack wasn't going to fail it because the detective had personal issues he refused to deal with in healthy ways.

in the meantime, jack just had to try and get the young adult to warm up to him, "you have a dog, right, detective?" the android asked and clark slowly looked to him, brows furrowed, "did you background check me or some shit?" he mumbled and jack shook his head, "no, i just noticed the saint bernard fur on your chair." he corrected, "i like dogs, what's their name?"

"why do you care?"

jack stammered, not really having a response because it's not like he "cared", he just was trying to fill in painful silence with conversation, also trying to obtain information about the detective to help adapt with his personality, "......her name's scooby." clark mumbled after a moment and jack nodded, furrowing his eyebrows after a moment as he realized where the name came from, "isn't scooby a great dane in the cartoon?" he asked and clark chuckled a little, "their personalities were too close for me not to name her after him."

jack smiled to himself, storing that information for later and kinda hoping that he would get to meet the detective's dog eventually; he wasn't lying when he said that he liked dogs.

"do you listen to the gorillaz?" jack asked, continuing their small talk after a brief pause, "i quite enjoy that music, it's very.....pleasing." he commented, having actually enjoyed the music that had very loudly played from the detective's headphones, "androids listen to music?" the dark haired man questioned, "well, i don't exactly listen to music like humans do, meaning i don't put headphones on and listen to a streaming service, but from what i've heard, the sounds are enjoyable." he explained, clark looking at the android in confusion before shaking his head to himself and mumbling another curse.

"i apoligize for asking so many questions, detective, but......a lot of people don't like having androids around, for several different reasons, and i noticed your distate of me, do you have a reason for hating me?"

clark took a deep breath, biting his cheek, "yeah....i do." he mumbled and jack waited for a response, but didn't get one and he chose not to push it, wanting to keep his and the detective's fragile relationship on the slow but good path it seemed to be getting towards at the moment, "do you have any files on deviants, detective? i'd like to start researching."

clark pointed to the thin translucent screen on jack's desk, "all files are in there, have a fuckin' party." he informed and jack nodded in thanks, the artificial skin on his hand peeling back as he touched the keypad, needing to remove it so that the keyboard would register his touch.

**•◇•**

peter slowly "awoke", his eyes opening as he got out of his stasis, looking to morgan who was still fast asleep against his side and he slowly removed his arm from around her, making sure not to wake her as he left the car; _change appearance._

peter scanned the abandoned parking lot, rain pouring down on him as he looked for something to open the trunk of the car, hoping to find something of use in the vehicle, his eyes landing on a crowbar by a wheelbarrow and he bent down, picking it up and jumping away as he heard something thud against the ground, seeing a long-dead android curled up behind a collection of trashcans, "DEATH TO ALL ANDROIDS" written on the brick wall behind it in thirium; he'd have to make sure morgan didn't see that.

peter made his way back to the car, forcing the trunk open with the crow bar and lifting the door up the rest of the way, finding some old coats that someone left behind and he grabbed the adult sized one, putting it on and his eyes landed on a pair of scissors that someone had stabbed into the tire of the car, the android pulling them out and bending down infront of the small side-view mirror on the car, cutting the longer parts of his hair and making it so that it was no longer than his ears, his led swirling yellow as it made a couple shades darker and he raised the pair of scissors once again, stabbing them into his led and forcing it off, the small light falling to the ground and his skin healing itself.

while he was a semi-common model, changing his looks hopefully helped him blend in with society a bit more.

peter heard a car engine outside the parking lot, seeing red and blue lights reflexting in the water on the ground and he began to panic, going to the fence and peering outside, seeing a couple cars, one being a police vehicle, and a few people and an android model that he'd never seen before standing outside the mini mart on the other side of the street; while peter was tempted to stay in the parking lot until they left, he knew that him and morgan had to get on the train to the other side of town, needing to get to the address that the WR600 had given him as soon as they could.

peter went back to the car, pulling the smaller coat out of the trunk and carefully opening the door, stepping inside and gently shaking morgan, "morgan, its time to wake up." he softly cooed, the little girl stirring before opening her eyes, looking up at peter and blinking slowly, ".......it wasn't just a nightmare?" she whispered and peter's heart sank, "i'm sorry, morgan......how do you feel?" he asked and she shrugged, "a little cold."

with that said, peter handed her the child's size coat and she took it, putting it on; "there's a train station nearby and it'll take us to that address the android gave me yesterday." he informed, morgan feeling that there was a "however" to that sentence and she waited, ".....we'll have to be careful though, there are some police on patrol and we can't let them see us. keep your hood up and i'll do the same, okay?" he instructed and the little girl nodded, peter taking her hand and the two stepped out of the car, "your hair is different."

"yeah, i changed it a little."

"i like it, you look more like a human now." she smiled and peter grinned back, pulling his hood and doimg the same for morgan before the two very carefully exited the parking lot, making sure to not be seen.

**-×-**

"they rode the bus 'till the end of the line, then uh.....i dunno where they went after that, but they asked if i knew a place they could spend the night---i didn't have an answer obviously and they got off the bus, that's all i know."

clark nodded at the bus driver's words, taking notes of the conversation on his tablet, "thanks for your time." he smiled and the man nodded before getting back to work, officer nieves walking over to him, "me and a few others are sweeping the area, checking to see if anybody saw anything." she informed and clark gave her a thumbs up, "dope, lemme know if anything helpful is said."

kaia nodded, turning her head to where the JK800 model stood next to clark's car, spinning a trainer butterfly knife as he looked around, "what're you gonna do with that?" she muttered to the detective, who turned his head to look at jack, "suppress the urge to break it." he mumbled, only half joking and kaia shrugged, going back to her patrolling station and clark finished up om his tablet before storing it in one of his inner jacket pockets, walking over to jack as the android put away the fake weapon, getting completely soaked by the rain but not seeming to give a damn; "it took the first bus that came along and stayed at the end of the line."

"thank you, captain obvious."

jack ignored clark's comment, folding his arms behind his back, "its decision wasn't plannes, it was driven by fear." he added and clark scoffed, "thought androids didn't feel anything?"

" _androids_ don't, _deviants_ do; they get overwhelmed by the new sensations of emotion and make decisions that seem good at the time."

"yeah, but that still doesn't tell us where it went."

"well.....it didn't have a plan and no place to go." jack mumbled, led swirling blue as he pondered, "it might not be too far."

**-×-**

  
_reach train station_ _, don't get caught._

peter held morgan's hand tightly as the two walked dowm the street, hoods up to not only shield them from the run but to avoid being noticed, police officers on nearly every corner as they searched for a PB400 that had been reported; morgan's safety was all in peter's hand, if they got caught it was fucking over.

"stay close to me" peter whispered and morgan nodded, walking as close to him as she possibly could, gripping his hand as they crossed the street and two officers appeared in peter's view, the android quickly grabbing morgan and ducking behind a sign post, keeping her behind him so that they weren't seen; _chances of being spotted : 46%._

peter tried to keep calm as he slowly left from behind the post, walking morgan across the street at a sort-of fast pace, getting closer to the train but cops were still everywhere, the train was over a two hundred feet away and they had to hope that their luck stayed; _chances of being spotted : 25%._

the two crossed the street, knowing they weren't supposed to yet but needing to be as safe as possible, peter grabbing an umbrella from a free-to-use barrell and popping it open, turning away from an officer as they walked by, holding his breath as the danger level rose higher and higher, putting it away once he felt they were safe and continuing to walk; _chances of being spotted : 85%._

peter froze as the levels suddenly shot up, mot seeing any officers in front of him and he was too afraid to turn around, knowing that his face being seen would give it all away amd he tugged on his hood, trying to keep his features hidden to his hest ability; _chances of being spotted : 98%._

"shit, there it is!"

peter's heart pounded in his chest at the officer's voice, turning over his shoulder and seeing a man talking into a walkie talkie as he rushed towards them and he wasted no time in running, morgan doing her best to keep up with him.

**-×-**

"it's headed for the train station!"

jack turned his head at officer jacobs' voice, the man running up to him and clark, the android looking to the detective for a moment before taking off into a sprint; _train station : 370 feet, right side._

jack could hear clark running behind him, but he kept his eyes straight forward, focused on finding the PB400 and the supposed young girl it was with, needing to capture the deviant to aid in their case; "they're over there!" officer nieves shouted at jack as the android came to a sudden stop in front of an alley, turning his head and seeing the PB400 helping the little girl climb over the fence to the highway, jack running towards them but getting there after they hopped the fence, the PB400 looking at him and something in jack twisted.

not physically, his biocomponents didn't shift, it was just that the desperation in the deviant's eyes did something to him, almost as if it was begging him not to stop them, it's gaze shifting and jack turned around, seeing officer nieves with a raised gun, "don't shoot! we need it alive!" jack shouted and the deviant took the distraction to its advantage, sliding down the muddy hill to the highway and climbing over the railing, watching the cars speed past as it clung to the child.

"thats fucking insane!"

jack turned his head at detective barker's voice, seeing the man now standing beside him and watching the deviants as they began carefully but quickly crossing the highway, dodging cars and the little girl screaming as the deviant yanked her just out of the way of being hit; jack had to stop them before they got across.

the android began to climb the fence, but someone grabbed his jacket and yanked him back down, "what the hell are you doing?!"

"i can't let them cross, if they do then--"

"there's no way they'll make it, look at how crazy it is."

"i can't take that chance!" jack shouted and he went to climb the fence again, but detective barker grabbed him with both hands this time, keeping a firm grip on the android, "you'll fucking die, you moron!" he shouted, anger in his tone and jack fought his hold, "don't you dare hop this fence, jack, that's an order!"

jack stopped at that, the detective's tone and words digging into him as the man still kept a firm grip on him, the two staring at each for a moment before jack let go of the fence, choosing to obey clark's orders and stay on this side of the fence, watching the deviant and the little girl actually manage to survive the highway and hop the other side.

".......shit." jack spat through clenched teeth, mad at himself for losing a valuable piece of evidence to the deviant case, clark giving him a pat on the shoulder, "someone'll catch 'em, don't beat yourself up over it." he mumbled before walking away, jack watching the detective for a moment before following him back to the car.

**•◇•**

a loud splash echoed through the abandoned freighter as rue dived into the cold water, hearing the loud creaking of rusty metal as she surfaced and grabbed onto the rusty ladder that was built into the wall; the small amount of information that the junkyard android had given her led rue to an abandoned ship, the word "jericho" painted on it's rusty exterior.

apparently this is where androids could be free, but something was telling rue that it wasn't what freedom should be.

climbing out of the water, rue's eyes fell on a rusty yellow door, a wheel on the front of it and she walked over to it, having to turn it with a little extra strength as the rust had made it rather difficult to move, the door creaking loudly and squeaking as she pushed it open, being met with a much darker hallyway littered with debris and leaky pipes; thankfully, there a wallbox in the hallway with a functioning flashlight because while rue was a rather advanced prototype, she didn't have night vision.

after having to give the flashlight a couple shakes before it lit up, rue cautiously made her way through the abandoned freighter, watching her steps as the ground was wet and there were broken pipes, smashed wooden planls, and other garbage at almost every turn, some hallways and rooms being completely blocked off due to the amount of mess.

there were several yellow doors as rue made her way through, each of them being so rusted that no matter how hard she pushed and pulled, there was no chance of it budging, so she was forced to keep looking and hopefully she'd find the safe space that the junkyard android was speaking of; this place seemed like a pretty shitty safe space, if she was being honest.

the sound of heavy footsteps caught rue's attention, turning her head just in time to see a blonde haired person dash across the hallway in front of her, disappearing before she could even think about scanning them, curiosity getting to the android and she walked in that direction, figuring that where whoever that was went was where she should be going, making her through and debris-filled hallway and nearly getting crushed by a falling pipe, finding another rusted door and this one actually creaked open, leading her to a much bigger area, she figured this was the machine room, but just as dark and damp, the only difference being there were more pipes and rusty stairs that led to another level below.

hesitantly, rue walked forward, the metal creaking loudly beneath as if it was ready to fall out from under her at any second, the android seeing that ahead of her was a what looked to be a sort of bridge, rusty railings and flooring that had a several foot drop below it; fucking _awesome._

as rue began crossing it, the floor began shaking and the creaking grew much louder, realizing that the bridge was beginning to collapse and rue tried to run, hoping to make it to the other side before the whole thing collapsed, but she wasn't as lucky as she hoped and the metal floor beneath her collapsed, causing her to fall and smack against a pipe on the way down, hitting solid ground and a quick scan reassured her that she wasn't damaged, so she slowly got to her knees and grabbed her flashlight, standing up and jumping in surprise as her eyes landed on several androids.

rue turned, her flashlight landing on an android with a shoulder-length brown hair and a soft smile on her face as she looked at rue, "welcome to jericho."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reminder that i suck at action scenes 🤙🏻

"who......who are you?"  
  
"fugitives, just like you." one of the androids spoke and rue looked at him, the android--- _KM_ _500, school teacher_ \---still having his led, it spinning a soft blue, "my name's mckay, or chris." he informed with a gentle tone, almost like he was making sure rue knew that she was welcome here, "i'm lexi." the brown haired android--- _LX400, domestic assistant and housekeeper_ \---that had welcomed rue smiles, "jules." another female android--- _HS6_ _00, relationships_ \---spoke up as she raised her hand in a subtle wave, rue realizing that she was the android she had seen run by her earlier in the halls.  
  
"......this is jericho?"  
  
"it's a refuge for those sick of being slaves."  
  
"how many are here?" rue asked as she looked around, "nineteen, the number changes at times but never by much." jules informed, her tone laced with grief, "many try to reach us, but few actually do." lexi added, fiddling with her fingers, "i know that this place isn't much, but we have more freedom here than you ever did back with your owner."  
  
rue faltered at that, memories of ali and anna flooding her mind; ali had never been cruel to her, always treating her like a person and she wondered if he forgot that she was made of wires and coding instead of bones and muscle. of course, rue had her fair share of anti-android people and how most people actually felt about her kind, was she ever "free" when she cared for ali? she was doing an unpaid labor, but not one that she hated.....that didn't make it fair, though.  
  
"maybe......maybe i wasn't as free as i thought i was." she sighed after a moment, looking at those surrounding her, "you're lost, just like we are." lexi cooed, "we didn't ask for any of this, but we have to deal with it now." she smiled before stepping away, rue noticing the crowd around her had dispersed, "you're safe with us, you're more than welcome to stay." mckay reassued before also walking away, jules walking by rue and stopping when she noticed something, "go and see rowena, she'll help you."  
  
rue furrowed her brow before looking down to where jules was staring, noticing a part of her shirt had been stained with thirium and lifted the fabric, finding a large gash on her side that she didn't even notice, "she's right over there." jules informed as she pointed behind rue, the android looking to where the blonde was pointing and seeing a corner of the room shielded by torn-up tarps, a small fire going behind the curtains and rue smiled at jules as thanks before making her way over to where rowena should be.  
  
rue hesitantly stepped past the curtains, finding a female android--- _RC900, social care_ \---standing beside a barrel fire with her eyes shut, rue immediately noticing the extremely tarnished uniform and wires sticking out of the back of the woman's head, forehead plating on base of her head the only parts of her skull remaining; what the hell had happened to her?  
  
"excuse me?" rue spoke up, hoping that she wasn't disturbing her, and the android opened her eyes as she looked over to rue, the whites of her eyes turned black from whatever trauma she had gone through, "are....are you rowena?" she asked and the android smiled at her, "have a seat, dear." rowena cooed as she gestured to a short but long crate, voice filled with static, rue walking over and sitting down, placing her flashlight down as she looked up at the android, watching her artificial skin fade in and out on places as the plastic peaked through, her body having trouble keeping itself together in several ways, "where are you damaged?"  
  
rue lifted up her shirt, showing rowena the gash in side, thrium leaking out and pieces of her biocomponents peaking through, and she nodded, "i'll stop the bleeding." rowena spoke before walking over to the barrel fire, pulling a metal rod from inside, the tip of said rod being bright red from the heat, rowena walking back over to rue and using the heated rod to cauterize her wound, the plastic melding back together and rowena gave rue a soft smile once she had finished, putting the rod back in the fire and bending down beside it, picking up a small bottle of thirium.  
  
"drink this, dear."  
  
hesitantly, rue took the bottle from rowena, drinking the small dose of thirium before placing it down on the ground, "thank you." she cooed as she stood up, getting ready to leave but rowena stopped her, "give me your hand." she instructed and rue did as told, their artificial skin peeling back and revealing white plastic as they interfaced, rue allowing rowena to see her memories, "you had everything and then you lost it all in the blink of an eye." rowena spoke softly after obtaining the information, "your heart is troubled, having seen hell and heaven, but not knowing what you truly believe or desire. your decisions will shape our destiny, rue."  
  
rue stammered, trying to find words to respond with; rowena had spoken as if she was an all-knowing goddess, giving answers in mild riddles that a mere mortal would have trouble deciphering, but would need to so that they could succeed.  
  
rowena removed her hand from rue's, giving the troubled android a kind smile before backing away, closing her eyes and entering a meditative state of sorts, rue standing there for a moment before picking up her flashlight and leaving the small nursing(?) area, seeing mckay sitting on a rusted crate, leaning over something and curiously, rue made her way over  
  
a child android--- _MS300, female child, "age" 7_ \---was curled up on the ground, mckay having laid a jacket over her as if he were tucking a child into bed, rue feeling her heart drop at the sight of the obviously dying child, mckay noticing her presence and he stood up, walking over to her, "what happened to her?" she whispered and mckay sighed, "they threw her out when they realized they didn't want a kid, we found her on the streets a couple weeks ago."  
  
"she'll shut down if we don't find a way to help."  
  
"same goes for a few others around here, but we need thirium and other biocomponents to do so." mckay mumbled, "we.....we gather what we can from those who shut down, but we never have enough." he added as he rubbed a hand over his face, ".....thats awful." she whispered, face pinched in a emphatic grimace as she looked at the small girl, rue averting her eyes after a moment as it was getting difficult to keep looking at and her eyes landed on a large crate, something about it looking familiar to her and she walked over, finding the cyberlife logo om the side of it.  
  
rue shoved the lid off, finding that whatever was stored in the crates had been emptied awhile ago and she sighed, backing away and looking at the side of the crate, finding a serial number on the side and analyzing it; _Cyberlife Warehouse and Docks : West Torrance Avenue. Detroit, Michigan."_  
  
that placed had to been beyond filled with more than enough thirium and biocomponents for the refugees in need, an idea striking rue and she calculated the route to the docks, turning around and looking for lexi, getting the hint that the LX400 was sort of the leader of jericho; "lexi!" rue called as she appraoched the android, lexi looking up at the call, "i know where we can find spare parts; the cyberlife warehouses in detroit harbor would have more than enough for those in need."  
  
"rue, those docks are guarded, we can't just walk in and take what we want, humans would never let us--"  
  
"so we won't ask for permission." rue interjected and lexi faltered, not really knowing how to respond and rue saw mckay walk over in her peripheral vision, "we don't have weapons and none of us know how to fight." he spoke, "who said anything about fighting?" rue asked and mckay shook his head, "rue, we'd just end up dead!"  
  
"doing something is better than watching people shut down."  
  
"i'm with rue."  
  
the three turned their heads at jules' voice, seeing the android standing a couple feet away, a small smile on her face as she looked at rue and rue smiled back, thankful for the back up, "it's worth a try." lexi spoke after a moment, everyone looking over to mckay now to see if he was on board, his led spinning as he thought it over, ".....alright, i'm in."  
  


**•◇•**

  
  
jack exited clark's car, crossing the street to accompany the man as he waited to get his meal from a food truck that didn't have the best hygiene rating, "you want in?" jack heard someone ask clark as he approached, seeing a man with a shaved head and a red beard--- _Angus Cloud (alias : Fezco/Fez), 30, drug possession and illegal gambling_ \---talking to clark under the food truck's small overhang to shield customer's from the rain, "fez, the last time you asked me that, i was out of a week's pay." clark scoffed, jack standing at the edge of the sidewalk and observing their conversation quietly.  
  
"nah, man, this is different! 100% guarantee, can't go wrong." angus, or fez, exclaimed, obviously pressuring clark into giving in but not in a harmful way, it was more like if clark denied a second time then he wouldn't keep pressing, "......fine, you asshole, i'm in." clark mumbled with a laugh and fez clapped his hands, the detective handing him a small wad of cash and the man took it, "you ain't gonna regret this, barker, i swear." he smiled before walking away, "you're dead if you fuck me over!"  
  
a laugh from the man sounded, obviously not taking the detective's threat seriously, jack seeing him casually flash clark his middle finger before climbing into his car and driving off; jack really didn't think clark's friends would be like this, especially as a detective, but the man continues to be more complex than he thought.  
  
"the plastic with you?" the food truck owner--- _Gary Kayes, 36, resisting arrest and breach of hygiene regulations_ \----asked as he turned away from his grill and the detective sighed a little, "only for a bit." clark mumbled, turning his head as he heard footsteps and saw, as if one cue, the blonde android stand beside him, arms crossed behind his back and looking up at him like a dog, "dude, i said wait in the car. you don't have to follow me around like a fucking poodle." he sighed and jack remained silent, led spinning a bright blue as he turned his gaze to the ground; the detective did tell him to wait in the car, but doing so wouldn't help him learn more about him and give him the opportunity to adapt better to the man's personality, so this seemed like the better option.  
  
".....i'm sorry for my behavior." jack mumbled, somehow sounding like he actually meant it and like he was just reciting lines at the same time, "i don't mean to be unpleasant." the android added and clark laughed, "shit, you even got an ass kissing program." he mumbled to himself, running a hand through his slightly damp hair, "cyberlife didn't forget anything, huh?"  
  
"cyberlife is rather precise with their coding, there was much planning before my model was developed and i'm sure that everything was thought of before they even started building me."  
  
clark didn't respond, just taking his food and thanking the man before walking to a nearby stand table with an umbrella attached, "don't you dare leave that thing here, barker." the man behind the counter called, "give it a second, it follows me everywhere."  
  
as clark said those words, jack made his way over to the young man and clark looked back to the workee, giving him a "told you" glance as the android leaned against the standing table, an umbrella attached to it to cover them from the rain, jack looking at the detective's food as he took it out of its packaging and running an analysis; _cheeseburger (1680 kcals) and a_ _large carbonated soda (710 kcals)._  
  
those numbers raised mild alarm in jack, knowing that what his partner was eating was rather unhealthy, "your meal contains 1.4 times the daily intake of calories and twice the cholesterol level....you shouldn't eat that."  
  
"not the worst thing i've eaten."  
  
"detective, that's--"  
  
"i'll be fine, dude, calm down." clark mumbled with mild reassurance in his tone before taking a bite of his burger, jack dropping the subject and watching the detective eat for a moment before opening his mouth again, "i don't mean to alarm you detective, but your friend, angus---or fez, as you called him." he started and clark raised a brow, confused as to where the android was going with his sentence, "i believe he's engaged in some illegal activities." he spoke, keeping his voice low as if he wanted to avoid attention even though him and clark were the only people in earshot.  
  
the detective laughed, shrugging, "he's just doing what he's gotta do to get by; fez hasn't hurt anybody so i don't bother him." he explained and jack nodded, understanding clark's logic; if someone was doing something that wasn't the greatest but they needed to do it to survive and it was harmless, there's no sense in punishing them for it.  
  
"may i ask a......somewhat personal question?"   
  
clark nodded silently, keeping an eye on jack as he waited for whatever awkward question he was going to be asked, the blonde's led flashing a brighter blue for a moment before going back to normal, "why do you dislike androids as much as you do?" he asked and clark bit his cheek, jack hoping that he didn't strike a nerve, "......i have my reasons." he muttered before taking a sip of his soda, "did you do your homework on me before we met up or am i just a mystery to you?"  
  
jack gave the detective a tiny smile, clark almost not noticing it as it came and went so fast, the blonde android obviously trying to stay as robotic as he could, "i know that you weren't planning on becoming a detective when you were in school, but your mother changed your mind and you wound up graduating in the top percentage of your class." he informed, clark nodding to let the android know that he was actually correct, "i _also_ know that captain shurley has given you more than a handful of disciplinary warnings in the past couple of years and that you spend most nights at dean's bar."  
  
"......so? what's your verdict?"

"well, i think that working with you will be challenging in a different way than i initially thought, but adapting to human unpredictability is one of my features."  
  
clark nearly spat out his drink when jack threw him a wink, holding back the urge to laugh because that was the last thing he thought he'd see from the robotic version of bambi, but that's what he gets for assuming things; "is there anything you'd like to know about me, detective?" jack asked and clark scoffed, "fuck no---wait, actually i do have one question." the man spoke and jack perked up, eager to answer, "why'd they make you so damn annoying?"  
  
jack faltered at clark's question, led spinning as he tried to figure out an answer, "cyberlife androids were designed to work easily with humans, they tried to eliminate as much possibility for conflict as they can. my appearance, voice, and personality---i guess is what you would call it---were thought over and designed to make sure that my integration was as smooth as possible."  
  
"huh.......they fucked up, by the way."  
  
jack's mouth quirked up in a lopsided smile, this smile also coming and going in the blink of an eye, the android looking down at the table and fidgeting with his hands for a moment, "......i should probably tell you what we know about deviants so far, it would be beneficial if you knew all what i did." he muttered after a moment and clark shrugged, "if it makes you feel better." he mumbled and jack bit back the urge to tell the detective that he didn't feel anything, but clark already knew that so there was no point in repeating basic knowledge.  
  
"we believe that a mutation occurs in an android's software, which leads to them emulating--"  
  
clark put a hand up, signaling jack to stop, "in words that i actually understand, please."  
  
jack paused for a moment, but nodded and restarted, "they don't exactly _feel_ emotions, certain instructions can seem illogical in certain situations so they get overwhelmed and break, leading to unpredictable actions." he explained and clark nodded, "emotions fuck everything up.......maybe they're not so different after all." he muttered, almost as if he just had a sudden realization and jack went silent, "have you dealt with deviants before or am i the lucky guy that gets to be apart of your test run?"  
  
jack's led slowly faded to yellow as he thought back to his very first mission, a month before he met up with detective barker; an LX400 model had gone deviant and taken its owner's daughter hostage after killing the father, it had threatened to jump off the roof of the building they were in and was shooting at anything that went near it, including jack. jack had failed to calm the LX400, or cassie as the girl had named it, down enough for it to not jump off, but he managed to save the little girl from falling, he just suffered several gunshot wounds to the back, resulting in a shut down and cyberlife needed to send another model out.  
  
his mission ended in success, it just had ended messily.  
  
"yes......a few months back." the android spoke, clark noticing that his led was now yellow and while he didn't much about androids, he knew that yellow wasn't the color you wanted the led to be, "a deviant was threatening to kill itself and a little girl by jumping off its owner's rooftop, i managed to save her but it had damaged me severely in the process; cyberlife had to transfer my memory to another JK800 before i could meet you."  
  
clark furrowed his brow, "they couldn't have just done robot surgery on you or some shit?"  
  
"no, the deviant had shot me too many times for a procedure, it was easier and less expensive to transfer my memories into another model." jack spoke, his led fading back to blue, and clark nodded a little, something in his mood seeming to change but jack couldn't figure out what, "speaking of deviants, i have a question about the case we worked this morning." the android spoke and clark looked at him, waiting for the question, "why didn't you want me to chase those deviants on the highway?"  
  
"you could've been fucking _killed_."  
  
jack furrowed his brow at clark's response; wouldn't a detective who hated androids not care if one gets damaged? "but, if i had managed to capture the deviants, then we could've learned more about deviancy. i also just explained to you that my memories are transferrable to another version of my model if i do get severely damaged." he responded and clark sighed, "well, i didn't know that at the time, plus i hate filling out paperwork for damaged equipment." he mumbled and jack nodded, clark watching as the android's led blink yellow as jack's eyes twitched, the rapid blinking confusing the detective.  
  
"what the fuck was that?"  
  
"i got a report of a suspected deviant; it's just a few blocks away, so i think we should go take a look." jack spoke, "after you finish your meal, of course." he added quickly and clark nodded, "how kind of you." he mumbled and jack stood up from his leaning position, "i'll be in the car when you're ready, detective." he informed before walking back to the car, clark watching as he did so before shaking his head to himself; fucking androids.  
  


**•••**

"yo, jack!"  
  
jack "awoke" from his minor stasis, having been sending a brief update to cyberlife about his investigation with detective barker, hoping that they would be pleased with his results this far even though he hadn't done his best; the android snapping back to reality and seeing clark standing in the hallway outside of an elevator, jack still in the elevator as he entered the stasis when they were inside it, "do you need to be charged or what?" clark teased and jack shook his head, "androids don't require a charge, i was just sending a report to cyberlife, my apologies."  
  
"huh.......well, you gonna stay in the elevator all day?"  
  
"no. i'm coming."  
  
clark raised a hand in a "whatever you say" gesture before walking off, jack following his lead and walking down the dimly lit and rather gross hallway, the floor they were on was abandoned, the building not having enough renters to need this floor and said building was that well-kept anyway; "what do we know about this guy?" clark asked as they walked and jack shrugged, "not much, just that a neighbor reported that he heard strange noises coming from this floor; nobody should be living here and he said he saw an led being hidden by the suspect's cap."  
  
"christ, if we send a cop everytime someone has a strange noise, we'll need more of 'em."  
  
"you could always send an android to do it." jack suggested, not picking up an clark's joke and the detective just laughed, "......were you actually sending a report to cyberlife back there? you just kinda looked like you had fallen asleep." he asked and jack nodded, "correct."  
  
".....dope."

clark leaned against the wall, looking over to jack as the android stopped in front of the door, the realization that clark was silently telling jack to knock on the door came to the android after a few confusing seconds and he moved closer to the apartment door, knocking lightly, "anybody home?!" he shouted a little awkwardly and clark raised a brow as jack turned to him, "you can knock more than once, you know." he whispered and the android knocked again, this time much more aggressive, "detroit police, open up!"  
  
a faint crashing sound come from inside the apartment and clark straightened up, jack looking to the detective as the man pulled out a gun, "stay behind me." he ordered and jack immediately obeyed, mumbling a small "got it" as he ducked behind his partner, clark kicking the door open with a firm grip on his gun, looking around the dark hallway before making a small gesture to let jack know he could follow, the android cautiously walking inside as clark kicked open doors, prepared for a human to jump out at him.  
  
but, he wasn't prepared for a huge flock of pigeons to fly out at him once the door got kicked open.  
  
"what the FUCK---oh god, it's _awful_ in here."  
  
jack stepped into the room as clark shouted, trying his best not to accidentally kick any pigeons as the floor was basically covered in them, looking around and seeing that almost every wall, including cabinets and the fridge, had weird maze-like patterns drawn onto them, jack making his way over to the kitchen area and opening the fridge, finding no food and his eyes landed on a small box of bird feed; was the (possible) deviant caring for all these pigeons? why even bother with that? they were fully capable of finding their own food, maybe it was a deviancy thing to develop an attachment to animals?  
  
putting those thoughts away for later, the android walked over to one of the walls and found a large poster hung up, the corner peeling off already so he grabbed it, ripping the poster down and finding a large hole in the wall that hid a couple small journals, jack picking one up and flipping through it, only to find it filled with more maze-like patterns.  
  
"found anything?"  
  
"i'm......not sure." jack mumbled as he closed the book, putting it in his inner jacket pocket so that he could register it as evidence later, "it seems like a diary, but the scriptures are all in code that i can't read." he added as he walked away from the wall, walking over to an open cabinet and finding a license-- _Rupert Travis---_ that he deemed was fake upon immediate inspection, "they had a fake drivers license."  
  
"awesome, we got something outta this fucking shithole."  
  
jack placed the id back down before heading into the next room, which looked to be a bathroom, and his eyes landed on an led, accompanied by splashes of thirium in the sink, the android dipping his finger in the small puddle of liquid before bringing his hand to his mouth; _WB200 #847 004 961,_ _reported missing october 11th, 2036_.  
  
"i fucking hate it when you do that." jack heard clark mumble and the android looked over his shoulder, seeing the detective with a disgusted look on his face, "i was able to identify its model and serial number." he informed before looking back to the sink, picking up the led, "you couldn't have done that without sticking blood in your mouth?"  
  
"if it makes you feel any better, i can't taste it."  
  
"what would make me feel better is you not putting your dirty ass fingers in your mouth."  
  
jack ignored the detective's comment, knowing that his fingers weren't "dirty" and that him testing a sample was a little jarring but not as weird as clark made it out to be, "not surprised it was an android though, no human could live all these damn winged rats." clark muttered and jack turned to the bathroom wall, seeing maze patterns but also several scribbles of the phrase RA9, "any clue on what that shit means?"   
  
"its been written two thousand, four hundred, and seventy one times and its the same phrase that carlos ortiz's android wrote in their home, but.......i have no idea why they'd be obsessed with it."  
  
clark stepped closer to the wall, eyeing the maze patterns and the sloppily, overlapped phrases, "these mazes are all over the damn place." he mumbled and jack nodded, "i saw it in the journal as well, i think its a sort of code." he informed and clark nodded, "it's gonna be fun trying to crack that shit." he mumbled before leaving the room, jack's eyes landing on a knocked-over chair; it had been recently turned over and there was an open sharpie on the ground beside it, the marker still wet so it hadn't been sitting there for long.  
  
jack backed away from the area, using his reconstruction program to put together that the suspect had fallen off and ran to the living room once it heard them, following the deviant's path and seeing a bird cage on the ground, hook broken and scratch marks on the bottom of it, the deviant had knocked it over in it's attempt to hide and another reconstruction told jack that the deviant had used the chair at the end of the room as a stool to get into the hole in the ceiling; the deviant was _still here_.  
  
carefully, jack made his way over to where the deivant should be, looking up at the ceiling and after a minute, someone jumped down at him, causing him to crash to the floor with a surprised cry and pigeons to scatter around them, clark shouting a curse about the birds as jack got to his feet, managing to see the deviant dash out of the room, "what the fuck are you doing?! chase it!" clark screamed and jack went after the deviant, sprinting down into the hallway and having to jump over a shelf that the android knocked over, shoving open the fire exit and having the android in his sights.  
  
the deviant jumped down from the roof into a small wheat field, which belonged to a produce company and was on the same land as a large factory that jack knew he was going to have to make his way through because the deviant wasn't going to stop until he caught it himself; thankfully, androids don't get tired and he was capable of doing this all damn day.  
  
jack's programming allowed him to see every path, giving him the safer but slower and the faster but riskier paths, the android barely even giving the safe routes a glance as he always chose the riskier one, knowing that he was able to do those paths carefully enough to where he would succeed, whether it be dashing through a semi-crowded greenhouse or leaping off a roof so that he could slide down the glass paneling beside it and jump into the next building; he was going to stay as close to the deviant as he could, knowing that if he lost sight of it that the chances of him finding it again were slim.  
  
jack saw the android jump down off another roof, following its lead and sliding down the glass paneling that was beside it, having to jump onto a passing train to make sure that he was still on it's path, leaping off and grabbing onto a brick wall, pulling himself up onto a roof that held an orchard and he ran through it, having to leap onto another roof after making his way through and run into another greenhouse, passing WR600's as they worked and having to leap over tables of miscellaneous plants, only to make it outside and having to push through a corn field, barely able to see the deviant in front of him.  
  
"stop right there!" jack heard clark shout, only to see the deviant push clark away and cause the detective to fall off the roof, gripping onto the wall to save himself from a not-large drop but the possibility of damage was high; _charge the deviant or save clark_?  
  
......billie wasn't going to be pleased with this.  
  
jack rushed over to clark, grabbing the man's hand and pulling him back up onto the roof, "shit, we had it!" he cursed as he got back onto the ground, "it's my fault, i wasn't fast enough." jack spoke, taking the blame immediately and clark sighed, noticing the android's led was yellow and he wasn't sure if that was because jack just had several near-death experiences (the fucker jumped onto a speeding train for fucksake!) or something else was bothering him, "......you would've caught that bastard if it weren't for me." he mumbled and jack looked up at him, the detective dusting himself off, "we know what it looks like, at least. we'll get it eventually."  
  
clark walked away, jack still looking in the direction the deviant ran off, almost feeling angry with himself that he wasn't fast enough because not only had they lost a valuable piece of evidence, clark could've gotten badly hurt.  
  
"hey, jack."  
  
the android turned as he heard the detective speak, eyebrows raised as he waited for more and clark looked like he wanted to say something but changed his mind, "......nothing, let's get outta here." he mumbled and jack nodded, following the man as the two left the roof.  
  


**•◇•**

  
morgan leaned into peter's side as the two walked down the muddy road, the train had only taken them so far and the address they had been given was seemingly in the middle of nowhere, so they had to do the rest of their journey on foot and peter felt awful that morgan was getting as soaked as she was.  
  
as a large gated house appeared in the distance, peter gave morgan a gentle smile, "we'll get help here, okay?" he cooed and morgan nodded, focused on walking and only sort of paying attention, "things are going to get better." he added before putting a hand on the slightly open iron gate, hesitant to widen it as this house looked like something out of an overly-gruesome horror movie, but he was desperate so he pushed past it, the metal creaking loudly as he and morgan walked through.  
  
keeping morgan close to him, peter walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, it taking another ring before the door opened a crack, a balding man with an unkind grimace on his face peaking through, "are.....are you toomes?" peter asked shakily, something in his gut telling him that this man was awful, but, again, he was desperate, "who's asking?" the man replied coldly and peter gulped, "s-someone said that you could help us."   
  
the man shook his head, "i don't know who told you that, you came to the wrong place."  
  
"wait!" peter cried as the man started to close the door, slamming his hand on the door to stop it from shutting in his face, "we really need help." he pleaded, looking up at the man in desperation and the man sighed, looking between peter and morgan before opening the door and stepping aside, peter and morgan sharing a glance before following toomes inside, "c'mon in, don't be shy, i don't bite." he smiled as peter shut the door behind them, the androids following the man from the foyer into the living room; "harley, would you be so kind as to take these two's coats?"  
  
at toomes' words, footsteps echoed the room and peter turned around, morgan gasping lowly as she saw a male android dressed in rather casual attire come towards them, intimidated by the mild scowl and his size, he wasn't that tall compared to peter, maybe six foot at the most, but compared to morgan he looked like a tree, "there's nothing to fear." toomes cooed, trying to reassure both peter and morgan as they looked up at the android, "harley is another android that i helped, he's kind enough to keep me company in this huge place."  
  
peter hesitantly removed his coat, harley gently taking it and doing the same with morgan before walking out of the room to hang up the clothes, "please, make yourselves comfortable." the man smiled as he gestured to the couches by the fireplace, going over to a desk with a tray of alcohol on it, pouring himself a glass as harley walked back in, standing silently with his arms crossed behind his back in the corner; "how'd you find out about me?"  
  
"a-an android." peter informed, unable to shake the uneasy feeling in his stomach, "they said you would be able to help us." he added and toomes nodded as he sipped from his glass, taking a seat across from peter and morgan, "and you're a deviant, i figure?" he spoke and peter nodded, "what about her?" the man added as he looked to morgan, "she's human."  
  
"so.....you wanna find a home, right? safe place for a fresh start?"  
  
peter nodded with a small smile, toomes returning the smile, "canada is wonderful this time of year, and not to mention that they have no android laws; best place for you guys to go." he beamed and peter smiled wider, "y-yeah, that's....that's exactly what we're looking for." he grinned and toomes nodded, "and i'm happy to help you! we just need to get rid of your tracker, first."  
  
"tracker?"  
  
"oh, yeah, all androids have a tracking device so that their owners can locate them whenever; i'll remove yours and everything will be fine."  
  
peter's widened a little; has beck been able to see him this whole time? was he right behind them without him even noticing?  
  
"follow me and we'll get started, everything's in the basement." toomes smiled as he stood up, placing his drink down before leaving the room and peter grabbed morgan's hand, standing and following the man, "she can wait for us in the living room, if you'd prefer." he suggested and peter shook his head, "no, she comes with me." he spoke firmly, refusing to let morgan leave his side as he held her hand, toomes nodding as they followed him down the stairs to the basement, peter hearing harley follow them as well.  
  
the more and more time peter spent here, the more nauseous and nervous he felt.  
  
"i-i don't like this place, petey." morgan whispered as they got to the bottom of the stairs, "i wanna go." she added and peter's heart sank, feeling terrible that he had to drag her through these things, "i don't trust him either, but we don't have a choice.....be careful, okay?" he whispered back and she nodded, moving closer to his side as they walked down a dirt-floored hallway, walking past what looked like old stables for farm animals.  
  
"please excuse the mess, i have to put my machinery in a discreet area as it's illegal to do such things." toomes announced as they reached the back of the basement, pulling back a translucent curtain and peter's eyes landes on the huge machine with multicolored wires hanging from the back of, computers and monitors lining the desk and wall to its left as the stage below the clamps of the machine glowed; oh god, what was he doing here?  
  
"stand up here and we'll get started."  
  
peter slowly let go of morgan's hand, giving her a reassuring smile before walking over to toomes' machine as the man typed on a keyboard, "fair warning, this isn't very pleasant." he warned before pressing a button, peter gasping as something plugged itself into the base of his skull, the clamps grabbing onto his arms and securing around his waist, raising him from the ground and holding him still, a chill running down his artificial spine as he heard toomes let out a hushed laugh; "it's funny, the trackers seem to stop working once an android deviates."  
  
"wh-what? but you---"  
  
"i lied, its easy to do that." the man shrugged as he stood in front of peter, a cruel smile om his face as peter's stomach turned with regret and fear, "fuckin' deviants, so naive and filled with false hope." he tsked and peter kept looking between him and morgan, seeing harley standing beside the little girl ready to stop her if she did something, "they all come to me, expecting help, but i just reset them and........get creative."  
  
"no! please don't reset me! let me go, please!"  
  
"peter!" morgan screamed before running towards him, but harley put a hand out and stopped her, pushing her back into place and toomes laughed, "shit, i forgot about her." he mumbled, "uh, lock it and we'll deal with it later." he instructed to harley and peter immediately filled with rage, "don't you fucking dare touch her!" he shouted, glaring at harley as if he could set him aflame with his mind, toomes laughing again, "aw, big brother android can't protect his little sis anymore, how sad."  
  
toomes turned to his wall of monitors, typing away on his keyboard and peter watched as a monitor lit up; _RESET_ _: 1%......2%.....3%....._  
  
shit, shit, shit!  
  
"petey!" morgan cried as she ran to peter, harley not stopping her this time as she grabbed at his shirt and looked up at him, eyes wet with tears as they trickled down her face, "i'm so sorry, morgan." peter whispered, wishing he could hold her and protect her, feeling awful for getting her in this mess, "alright, show's over, c'mon." toomes spoke as he walked over to morgan, grabbing her arm and she turned around, bitting down hard on his arm and drawing blood, the man crying out and yanking his arm away from her, "you little bitch! i'll teach you."  
  
morgan shrieked as toomes picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder and she pounded at his back with her little fists, kicking and screaming as he left the room, putting up as much as fight as she could and peter able to hear her angry shrieking awhile after toomes had left the room, harley looking at peter for a moment before leaving the room as well, the deviant being left alone as he slowly got reset; _find a way to escape._  
  
peter looked around as much as he could, trying to see what he could do with what little movement he had, seeing a bottle of alcohol sitting on the desk, he could probably knock it over and cause it spill on the machinery if he set things up correctly; turning to his left, peter saw a cart and he kicked it, causing a part of the machine to tip over and crash onto the ground, looking up and noticing that a couple of the multicolored cables were within his reach, grabbing onto the yellow one and pulling as hard as he could until it snapped off, letting it go and it swung down, knocking the alcohol bottle to fall off the desk and spill onto the ground, leaking onto the floor and soaking the machinery he tipped over.

sparks flew out from the machine, electricity crackling as error messages popped up on the monitors, showing that they were being forced into a shutdown after peter caused a short circuit, the reset being cancelled as a result and the android let out an unnecessary sigh of relief; now he just had to get out of this damn claw machine.  
  
carefully, peter leveraged himself against the back of the machine, trying to keep his feet stable on it as he pushed his weight against the claws until his wrists fell out of the grip, the plug in the back off his neck pulling out as he fell to the floor with a subtle cry, quickly gathering himself and standing back up; _memory corruption repaired._  
  
thank fucking god.  
  
peter made his way out of the machine room, stopping as he heard rustling in one of the livestock stables, stepping closer to the wooden gate and he gasped as a mechanical hand reached out from behind the bars, "help us...." a staticky voice whispered and probably against his better judgement, peter unlocked the stable, the door creaking as it slowly opened and peter stepped inside, his eyes widening at what he saw.  
  
it was a small group of androids, but they had been experimented on; some missing limbs, some missing skin so that you could see their biocomponents glowing and functioning, some with wires sticking out of random places, some with deformities peter couldn't even begin to describe.  
  
a hand reached out at peter, the deviant backing away out of instinct before looking up the android, seeing that their face paneling had been ripped off, their glowing white eyes standing out in the mess of wires, "he likes to play with us." a voice spoke softly, peter turning around and seeing an android missing most of their skin and plastic coating, only half of their face still having the artificial human-like skin, "creating abominations for entertainment." they added before stepping towards peter, "save the little girl before he gets to her."  
  
peter couldn't speak, too shocked to do anything but, so he fled the stable, looking back at the experimented androids before silently leaving, quickly but carefully making his way up the stairs into the foyer, pausing as he heard other footsteps and he peered around the corner, seeing harley walking up to the bedrooms(?) and hearing toomes' muffled voice, but able to make out the actual words; "understood, i will bring the little one in ten minutes." harley replied to his owner and peter froze; _find and save morgan._  
  
cautiously, peter walked up the stairs to the second floor, making sure that toomes didn't see him as he ducked past an open room, getting a small glimpse of the man's sickening experiments happening in real time, and made his way to the end of the hall, opening the door silently and stepping inside, shutting the door behind him and exploring the room; shut-down android corpses laid on tables, some were just upper bodies and others were just heads, dust-coated furniture strewn about, and a huge cage in the back of the room with a sheet over it.  
  
peter stepped towards the cage, moving the sheet and his eyes widening at the sight of an android polar bear, parts of it's skin missing and showing off its biocomponents; "h-hey there." peter whispered, the bear roaring as he approached, the android jumping a little but held out his hand, "i won't hurt you, its okay." he cooed, hoping that animal androids were programmed to understand human languages as he moved closer, seeing an easily unlockable latch on the cage and hesitantly, peter unlocked the door and pulled it open, the polar bear sniffing at the air and bumping it's nose against peter's chest before simply laying back down, stretching out in appreciation of the extra room.  
  
peter gave the bear a small smile before shifting focus back onto finding morgan, turning around and going to another door, opening it slowly and finding himself in a bathroom, "what are you doing here?" a staticky voice called and peter jumped, his eyes landing on an android without limbs in the thirium-stained bathtub, "has the master authorized you to be here?" they asked and peter approached them, unable to stop himself from looking at their beating thirium pump as it protruded from their mangled body, "you have no business being here, oh no. you cannot be here unless given orders to be here, that's for sure."  
  
"i'm looking for a little girl, have you seen her?"  
  
"little.....girl? no, no. haven't seen a little girl."  
  
peter crouched down by the tub as he put a hand on the android's chest for balance, fingers brushing against their thirium pump as he did so and it tensed up, "wh-what are you doing? you're.....you're not gonna hurt me." they spoke, basically begging peter and he had no intention on harming the android, but he couldn't be exposed, "i won't hurt you if you _promise_ not to tell your master that i'm here." he whispered, hoping that the android would cooperate, "yes! yes, i promise." they spoke and peter nodded, removing his hand and going to the nearest door, exiting the bathroom and entering the hallway, seeing harley standing a couple feet away as he guarded a door.  
  
peter quietly walked towards harley, the android looking at him as the deviant stepped in front of him and peter looked up at him, seeing what he could've sworn was sadness in eyes, "i.......i'm sorry." harley whispered, almost too quiet for peter to hear and he tensed up, worry filling him that toomes had already hurt morgan and he walked past harley, heading to the door at the end of the hallway and half-expecting harley to stop him, but he heard no movement as he slowly pushed open the door to a small storage room, seeing morgan curled up in the corner.  
  
"morgan." he called gently as he stepped inside the room, morgan looking up and her eyes widening with joy at the sight of him, "petey." she beamed as she stood up, peter smilikg as he knelt down and pulled her into his arms, holding her closely as relief washed over him, "i'm so sorry, i never should have brought us here." he whispered before pulling away, "we have to go, stay with me and be as quiet as you can, okay?"  
  
the little girl nodded and peter stood, taking her hand and guiding her out of the room, being as silent as possible and holding her hand tight as they ducked into the nearest room, peter hearing harley and toomes talking outside the door, shouting about how morgan was now missing and he pulled her under a table, holding her close and making their bodies as small as possible, tensing up as he heard the door open and was able to see harley's legs as he walked throughout the room, "harley! what the fuck are you doing?! come here right now!" toomes shouted after a few minutes, "yes, master!" harley replied and peter _thought_ he heard a door shut so he poked his head out, only to see that harley was still in the room and had seen them.  
  
peter rushed out from under the table, grabbing morgan and running to the bedroom, slamming the door shut and going to leave, only to see toomes with a shotgun and morgan screamed, peter slamming the door and barely dodging gun fire, blocking the door with a chair and seeing harley come from the other room, peter grabbing the nightstand and slamming it against the painted glass in the wall, crawling through the shattered hole and pulling morgan into the bathroom, only for the bathroom door to open and for toomes to fire at them, peter picking morgan up so that he could keep her safe and rushing into the next room.  
  
"there's no use in running, i'll get you eventually!"  
  
peter ducked behind the wardrobe, somehow toomes not seeing him do so and he gently putting morgan down as the man stepped into the room, ready to fire as he scanned the room, not seeing peter and the android took the opportunity to strike, shoving the wardrobe they were hiding behind onto toomes, but the man barely got hit, only knocking him to the ground momentarily and peter scooped morgan up again before trying to exit the room, ducking down as toomes shot at them, morgan screaming in terror.  
  
"i'll fucking show you!" toomes growled as he rushed at peter and morgan, peter opening the door and gasping as he saw harley, realizing he was trapped but then peter heard a bear roar, turning his head and seeing the polar bear he had released before was fully out of it's cage, standing on its hind legs behind toomes and slamming one of its paws into his back, knocking him to the ground and peter took the distraction to his advantage, managing to duck past harley as the bigger android lunged at them, going out into the corridor and rushing down the stairs, hearing toomes fire at the bear until the roaring stopped.  
  
"petey, he's coming!" morgan cried as she saw toomes and harley emerge from the room, peter covering morgan's head and ducking as toomes fired at them, running as fast as he could down the stairs and dodging bullets as he rushed to the front door, only to find it locked and he panicked as harley came towards them, ducking under the android's arms as he lunged at them again, running for the back door and thankfully finding it unlocked, running as fast as he could but only to slip and fall in the mud, getting to his knees and standing morgan up, "morgan, run! go as fast as you can!"  
  
"i'm not leaving you!"  
  
"morgan, please, just--!"  
  
"you've made a _big_ mistake!" toomes spat as he and harley approached peter and morgan, smiling cruelly as peter scrambled to his feet, standing in front of morgan to shield her from whatever toomes would do, "if only you had listened to me...." he sighed, shaking his head before raising his gun, only for harley to walk out in front of him and shield peter and morgan, "what the fuck do you think you're doing? move!"  
  
"no." harley spat, led spinning a bright yellow, "get the hell outta my way or i'll shoot--" toomes started, only to cut himself off as harley grabbed the gun from his hands, pointing it at him as the man stared at him in shock and disgust, "how _dare_ you? disobey _me_?!" he shouted and peter's eyes widened as he saw the experimented androids from earlier emerge from the back door, all of them filled with blood-boiling rage as they crept towards toomes, the man turning around at the sound and his eyes widened, "who let you out?!"  
  
peter turned morgan away as the androids took their anger out on toomes, beating him to the ground until there was a large pool of blood beneath his bashed head, knowing that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again.  
  
harley let the gun fall from his hands, turning to peter and morgan, led faded to a soft blue, "i.....i never wanted to hurt you." he breathed out, "i never had the courage to fight against my programming, but seeing you fight so hard to protect the little one and her to do the same.....it was like opening my eyes for the first time and i knew that i couldn't let him hurt anymore, especially those as undeserving as you two." he spoke and peter swallowed thickly, not sure what to say and harley pressed his lips together, "i completely understand if you find it difficult to trust me, after all that i've done, but.....i know someone who could safely get you across the border and i'm more than happy to take you there, to keep you and morgan as safe as possible."  
  
peter looked down at morgan, knowing that with harley by their side they would be much more safe and he looked back up, "okay....i trust you."  
  


**•◇•**   
  


jack walked through the zen garden, not paying any mind to the gentle rain that was drizzling onto him, clutching the umbrella in his hand but not using it as he searched for billie, finding her standing by the small rose garden that she was at the other day, only this time she was under the protection of one of the artificial trees so that she wouldn't get wet like jack was.  
  
"hello billie." jack greeted as he approached her, the woman smiling at him with a nod, "would you mind a little walk, jack?" she asked and he gave her a small smile in agreement, opening the umbrella up and raising it over their heads before the two began their walk through the large garden, "that deviant was an interesting case, was it not?" she started, "a shame that you weren't able to capture it."   
  
something sank in jack's chest, almost as if he felt guilty for not keeping up with billie's standards, "if i am unable to do something as simple as capturing a deviant, maybe you should consider replacing me?" he prompted and billie didn't respond to the question, only raising her eyebrows a little in consideration before changing the subject, "were you able to learn anything despite the loss?"  
  
"i found its diary, but it's coded in a way that i can't decipher just yet, the dpd is working on a way to read it, but i fear that they won't try for very long as it doesn't seem that important to them."  
  
"if more valuable evidence comes along, they will look into that, but speaking of the dpd; how is your relationship with detective barker going?"  
  
jack sighed a little at the mention of the detective; his relationship with the detective wasn't bad, but it wasn't healthy by any means. clark still showed his hatred towards androids and jack wasn't expecting him to just get over them as soon as they met, but it was proving to be a large obstacle in terms of progress and jack just hoped that things would get easier for both of them in this investigation.  
  
"he seemed thankful that i helped him on the roof; he didn't say anything directly but i understood what he was getting at." jack spoke, not wanting to get into extreme detail about the detective as he knew billie wasn't actually interested in the man, just the investigations the two were involved in, "jack, we don't have much time." she sighed as she stopped walking suddenly, the android doing the same and turning to her, "if deviancy continues to spread the way it, then its only a matter of time before things get much too big for just us to handle; you must put a stop to this before its too late, jack."  
  
"i will solve this investigation, billie, regardless of whatever it takes to do so; you won't be disappointed in me."  
  
"that's what i like to hear." she praised, "a new case just came in, contact detective barker and look into it."  
  


**•••**   
  


" _you've reached your destination, thank you for travelling with detroit taxis!_ "  
  
jack turned his head as the taxi doors opened, exiting the self-driving vehicle and stepping out onto the sidewalk in front of detective barker's house, the android walking up the couple of steps and knocking on the wooden door, "detective barker?" he called, hoping to get the man's attention as he waited a few moments before choosing to ring the door bell; it wasn't that late, almost eight at night, but perhaps he had fallen asleep and needed waking.  
  
unfortunately, there was still no response and jack opted to taking a look inside for himself, stepping off the porch and walking up to the front window, able to see a tiny bit of the living room through the cracks in the blinds, but he could only see clark's saint bernard lying down on the floor in front of the tv, the detective nowhere in sight, so jack walked down to the side of the house, finding the kitchen window and peaking inside, luckily finding his partner this time.  
  
except, clark was passed the fuck out on the floor with a gun and a spilt bottle of whiskey next to him.  
  
jack's eyes widened, unable to do a proper scan of clark's vitals from this distance and the android tried lifting the window, only to find that it was locked and he smashed his elbow through it, successfully breaking the glass and hearing the detective's dog bark at the sound, jumping through the window and not-so-gracefully dropping down onto the ground with a small grunt, hearing the small harumph-ing of a saint bernard and he sat up, seeing clark's dog---scooby, if jack remembers correctly---literal inches away from his face.  
  
"h-hey.....scooby." jack spoke, raising a hand as the giant dog sniffed at him, "i'm here to help your owner, okay? will you let me do that?" he asked as if the dog could verbally respond, the saint bernard sniffing his hand before leaning closer to his face, bumping her nose against his forehead before backing away, huffing at him and then walking over to her food bowl, jack watching her for a moment before getting to his feet and walking over to the still-unconscious detective, kneeling down next to the man and running a proper scan; _ethylic coma suspected, no signs of cardiac trauma._  
  
in other words, clark just had a bit too much jack daniels and passed out on his kitchen floor.  
  
"detective?" jack called softly, gently patting clark's cheek and only getting the smallest twitch of the eyes, "wake up, detective." he called louder, clark actually opening his eyes this time but jack could tell he was still unaware, the android smacking him across the face to clear the fog from the detective's head, "it's me, jack." he spoke and clark groaned, shutting his head and laying still on the ground; _get clark sober._  
  
jack pulled clark into a sitting position, earning an angry "heEeY!" from the detective, "i'm going to sober you up, but it may be unpleasant." he warned as he put clark's arm around his shoulder, "leave me the fuck alone, asshole!" clark snapped, words kind of slurring together as he looked at the android, "my apologies, detective, but i have to do this for both our sakes." jack responded before hoisting him and clark to their feet, struggling the detective balanced but managing to keep him from falling down, "thank you in advance for your cooperation."  
  
"get the fuck outta my house! fuckin' android!"  
  
jack ignored clark's drunk and aggravated babbling, walking the man to his bathroom, "scooby! attack!" clark shouted at the saint bernard who was laying on her dog bed in the living room, the dog giving a small boof in response but not moving from her spot, jack opening the bathroom door with a bit of a struggle but managing to get him and the detective in, only for clark to grab onto the door frame in protest, "m'not fuckin' going anywhere, bitch boy."  
  
jack shook his head at clark's comment, only pulling the man a little roughly and getting his hand away from the doorframe, taking him to the bathtub and setting him on the edge, "thanks, but i don't need a bath." clark mumbled before standing back up, only for jack to push against his chest, causing the man to fall inside the tub, legs dangling over the edge, "sorry detective, but this is neccessary." he apologized before turning the shower on, cold water raining down on clark and he immediately screamed at the very unwanted shower, "turn that shit off!"  
  
after a couple seconds, jack leaned forward and turned the water off, clark letting out a relieved sigh and pushing his soaked hair out of his face, looking up at jack with a confused glare, "the fuck are you doing here?"  
  
"a homicide was reported almost an hour ago; i didn't find you at dean's bar so i came by to see if you were at home, only to see that you were unconscious on your kitchen floor."  
  
clark groaned as he sat up, "jesus christ, of course i get signed up with the clingy bag of bolts." he mumbled bitterly, the remark that he was more than just bolts and that he was actually mostly made of different plastics popped up in jack's mind, but he decided not to voice it, staying silent instead and clark looked up at him, tired and much more sober than before, "why can't you just leave me the hell alone?"  
  
"sorry detective, but i cannot. since i've been made to investigate deviants, it's only right for me to look into every case involving them and i cannot do that without you."  
  
"i don't give a fuck about your case!"  
  
"clark, you aren't--"  
  
"get the fuck outta here!" clark snapped, standing up rather fast and opening his mouth to speak again, but his legs wobbled and he almost fell, jack reacting quick enough to catch him and lower him back down onto the edge of the bathtub, grabbing a towel from a nearby rack and draping it over the detective's shoulders, knowing that staying wet and cold wouldn't be comfortable no matter what state you were in; he still has to convince clark to leave with him, though.  
  
"i understand if you don't want to go, detective." he spoke after a moment of figuring out what to say, "this investigation probably wouldn't have been that interesting anyway." jack shrugged, turning away from clark and walking away, "i mean, it was just a man found dead in a sex club downtown, i'm sure they'll solve the case without us."  
  
".......you know, it might do me some good to get some fresh air."  
  
jack bit back a smile as he turned to look at clark, a small sense of pride hitting him at the fact that his sarcastic method worked, "there's shit in my room, can't really go out in m'boxers, ya know?" clark mumbled, the nausea effects of alcohol hitting him and jack nodded, "do you have a preference on an outfit for me to get you?" he asked and clark shook his head, "nah, just grab whatever." he replied and jack nodded, leaving the bathroom and walking across the hall to the bedroom, going into clark's closet and grabbing random clothes before returning to the bathroom, only to find clark now leaning over the toilet bowl.  
  
"are you alright?"  
  
clark waved a hand, "y-yeah, m'awesome, just....gimme a little bit, okay?"  
  
"no need to rush, detective, take your time." jack cooed as he set the pile of clothes down, leaving the room and shutting the bathroom door behind him, trying to ignore the sounds of his partner getting sick on the other side of the door and focus on the sounds of newscast playing on the tv as he ventured into the kitchen to tidy up the mess so that clark didn't have to deal with it when he returned home later, it's the least he could for breaking in after all.  
  
jack picked up the broken glass of the window, wiping up the spilled whiskey and putting it back on the table, noticing the barrel of handgun sticking out from underneath a kitchen cabinet and he pulled it out, noticing that it's handle was still warm, which meant clark wasn't holding it all that long ago, ".......what were you doing with a gun?" jack called, hoping that clark would answer as he was genuinely curious (and a bit concerned) as to what the detective was doing with it, "russian roulette. wanted to test my luck, i guess."  
  
jack popped the cylinder out, it spinning and showing several empty bullet slots, expect for one, "you were _very_ lucky." he replied, not sure if clark even heard him, standing back up after closing the gun, putting it down on the kitchen table and his eyes landing on a flipped over picture frame, curiousity getting the best of him as he picked it up, seeing a photo of clark and his mother; _lieutenant_ _christine barker, september 14th,1985 - october 11th, 2036._  
  
jack pressed his lips together, unsure as to why he didn't know this information earlier; he had seen pictures of the lieutenant before but he didn't know she was dead, figured she had an early retirement. the android chose not to dwell on the fact for too long, putting the picture back down before he ventured into the living room, exploring the area; a vinyl player sitting on one of the shelves in a bookcase that was big enough to cover the back wall of the living room, said bookcase being filled with actual books, photo albums, family photos, and vinyls of all kinds of music.  
  
jack turned his head as he heard a small ruff, seeing scooby curled up on her dog bed and looking up at him, tail wagging gently behind her and he walked over, kneeling down onto the ground and gently running his hand along her back, a small smile spreading on his face as she let out a content purring sound, greatly enjoying the attention he was giving her; "you two getting along?" clark's voice sounded suddenly and jack looked up, seeing the detective cleaned up and dressed, still looking tired as hell but like he was trying to pass off as awake, "i think she likes me."  
  
"you gave her attention, that's all she needs."  
  
jack stood up as clark walked over, patting the saint bernard on the head, "be a good girl while i'm gone, okay? i'll be back soon." he cooed and she made a small grunting noise as a reply, clark smiling at that and standing up, "let's get this shit over with." the detective mumbled as he walked towards the door, jack nodding and following him out, catching the car keys that clark threw at him.  
  


**•••**   
  


clark eyed the bright neon signs suspiciously, turning to the android in the driver's seat with a raised brow, "you sure we're at the right place?"  
  
jack nodded at his question, "it's the address on the report they sent me." he informed at clark sighed a little, "alright, let's do this shit." he grumbled before climbing out of the car, jack following the detective's lead and walking inside the brightly lit sex club, " 'the sexiest androids in town', now i know why you dragged me here." clark teased as they walked in, jack holding back the comment that it was the mention that it was a sex club that clark even agreed to come along, choosing to just follow his partner inside.  
  
" _welcome to the Eden Club_." the ai's voice purred as they walked through the door, clark rolling his eyes as he saw the walls were lined with sex-bots inside little see-through cells, each cell having a touch-screen beside it with the details of the android inside and the prices it would cost to rent them, "wow, _immediately_ hate this." clark scoffed as they walked through the hall, jack looking at the different WR600's that lined the walls; there were repeating faces, but there was a lot of variety in the models, as if cyberlife wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to "get with" a person that appealed to them.  
  
jack stopped at one of the cells, looking at a male model and the android inside the cell smiled at him, giving him a certain look that settled oddly with him, not sure how to process the glance as he looked back at the android, "jack!" clark called and the android jumped a bit, turning his head to look at the detective who had an amused smirk on his face, "you can fuck whoever you want later, we got shit to do right now."  
  
"i wasn't---"  
  
"yeah yeah, let's go."  
  
jack bit his cheek, his stomach feeling weird at clark's teasing comments, "......coming, detective." he mumbled---clark would swear to you that he heard _embarrassment_ in the android's tone---before following his partner, seeing the owner of the club standing outside on of the room's that a customer would go into once they've paid for their time, but this room had hologram crime scene tape in front of it; "you're not gonna take my license are ya? i-i had nothing to do with this, i swear." jack heard him stammer, hearing officer jacobs reply to him, "the investigation is ongoing, sir. i can't confirm or deny anything for you at the moment----hey, clark."  
  
clark nodded his head in greeting at the officer, jack raising his hand in a wave at the man but not getting any acknowledgement, "a little warning, claire's in there." nate mumbled and clark groaned, "a dead body and an asshole; what fuckin' luck."  
  
"all bodies--"  
  
"dude."  
  
jack stopped at clark's interjection, stepping into the room with the detectivr and seeing detective novak and officer nieves, said officer leaning over a deactivated android covered in her own thirium, "shit, if it ain't barker and his plastic boy toy." claire spat with a smirk as she glanced at the two, clark glaring at her, "the fuck are you two doing here?"  
  
"we're assigned every case involving androids due to the possibility of devisnt involvement."  
  
claire scoffed at jack's response, "you ain't got much of a case here, this bastard just got a little more than he could handle." she muttered, laughing a little as she spoke and clark gave her a smile that was anything but kind, "we're still gonma have a look, if you don't mind." he mumbled, looking to kaia and giving her an actual smile, claire rolling her eyes, "whatever, i'm outta here, starting to reak of whiskey." she spat, purposely bumping into jack on her way out and kaia went to follow, "night, guys." she smiled at the two, waving at jack and after a moment of surprise, he waved back; other than clark, she was the only one who actually gave him positive attention.  
  
clark let out a huff and he clapped his hands together, "and now the fun begins." he mumbled sarcastically before exploring the room, jack walking over to the dead man laying on the club bed, blanket covering him from the waist down; _michael graham :_ _heart attack not cause of death, signs of strangulation._  
  
"he was choked."  
  
"yeah, i saw the bruises, novak and nieves probably thought it was rough play; think she said a heart attack got him."  
  
"there's no signs of a cardiac arrest, the strangling wasn't for sexual purposes." jack muttered as he walked over to the deactivated HS600 that he had spotted earlier, it's face streaked with thirium and some staining it's platinum blonde hair, jack removing the skin from his hand and touching his fingers to the led; _biocomponents #5402 and #6970 critically damaged._  
  
did it kill the client before deactivation? how did it manage to do that in so little time?  
  
jack wiped away a streak of thirium from the android's jaw, bringing the sample of blood up to his mouth to analyze it; "hEy heY hEY!" clark blurted out, causing jack to pause with his fingers to his tongue, looking over his shoulder at the detective, "god, it's like working with a toddler." he grumbled in disgust, "did you at least get information out of that?"  
  
"it's serial number, but that doesn't do much."  
  
clark scoffed a little, shaking his head before an idea popped in his head, "can you read her memory?" he asked and jack turned back to the android, "i'd have to reactivate it to do so, the damage is pretty great so if it even comes back, it'd be for a minute at the most." he replied, putting a hand to it's bare stomach and causing the artificial skin to retract, revealing plastic paneling and jack popped it open, showing a couple disconnected wires, "hopefully we can get information out of this." he mumbled before connecting the wires, the android gasping as soon the cables were fixed, shooting up and scrambling away from jack, pressing it's back to the wall as the bright red led blinked furiously; _time before shut down : one minute and thirty seconds._  
  
"everything is okay; you're damaged somewhat, but i had to reactive you."  
  
the HS600 trembled as jack crouched in front of it, it's eyes darting between him, clark, and the corspe on the bed, "is....is he dead?" it asked and jack nodded calmly, "i need you to tell me what happened." he spoke, his tone firm but gentle enough that he kept it from panicking more than it already was, "h-he.....he hit me....again and again...."  
  
"did you kill him?"  
  
"n-no! no, i didn't do it, i promise!"  
  
"was there someone else in the room then? another android?"  
  
"he a-asked for two girls."  
  
"do you remember the model?" jack rushed out, knowing that he had less than a minute to get information and trying to get as much as he could, "s-same as me, HS600." the android stammered, it's clock ticking down way faster than jack wished, "where did it go?" he asked, but as it went to respond, it's face froze and it shut down, jack's heart sinking as he led faded off and he sighed, "dammit."  
  
"this was over an hour ago, though, thing's probably gone by now."  
  
"no, it can't leave the club dressed the way it was, everyone would notice........it's still here, just hiding."  
  
clark raised a brow at jack, arms crossed over his chest, "you think we can find a deviant in a club full of androids that look just like it?" he mumbled, "the club offers a few different versions of each model, there is enough variation between androids that i'm sure we could find it if we looked......i just fear that it may take too long and it'll find a way to cover up and escape." jack spoke and clark nodded, "i'll ask the manager what he saw, see if we can get a witness."  
  
jack nodded at clark's words as two exited the room, clark heading towards the manager and jack walking by but listening in to see if any information was useful; "you ever have any trouble with androids before?" "no! well, actually we had a model run out on us a few months back, an HS600; it just disappeared one day and we stopped looking for it after a couple weeks." "uh huh......you don't got any cameras in here by any chance?" "no, sorry. that's what a lot of people like about the club; the discretion. that's why we delete shit from the 'droids every so often, don't want clients to get all pissy if something gets seen."  
  
jack walked away from the conversation at that point, realizing that the only recorded footage in the entire building would be whatever the androids out on display would have in their memories. unfortunately, the memory wipe policy put a limit on the possible evidence that jack could collect from the models.  
  
the android made his way over to one of the cells, which contained a dark haired male UA400 model, and put his hand up to the touch-screen mounted on the wall, only to curse under his breath as he got denied access to its cell since androids didn't have finger prints..........clark was going to _hate_ this.  
  
"detective?"  
  
clark turned his head as jack approached him, eyebrows raised as he waited for the android to continue, "can you.....give me a hand?" jack asked and clark nodded, excusing himself as he stepped away from the manager and following the android to the rentable models, "can you rent this android?"  
  
"i'm not buying you a fuck--"  
  
"please, it can help the case."  
  
clark gave jack a glare, but let out a sigh through his nose before putting his hand to the touch screen, grumpily paying for the model and the cell slid open once the transaction was confirmed, the android stepping out of its cell and giving the detective a warm smile, "delighted to meet you; follow me and i'll take you to your room." it purred and clark looked to jack, "do your thing before i lose my mind."  
  
jack walked over to the UA400, the male designed android looking at him in what almost looked like confusion as jack took its hand, the artificial skin peeling away from both of them as they interfaced, clark watching as jack's eyes blinked and twitched rapidly for a moment before they shut completely, led spinning a bright yellow as he watched the UA400's memory; _a male looking the android up and down before leaving, various models dancing on poles, a short pink haired HS600 exiting a room and walking away._  
  
"it's still here!"  
  
"what?"  
  
jack turned to clark, eyes wide, "it saw the deviant leave the crime scene, a pink haired HS600!" he exclaimed, "the club has to wipe the models' memories every two hours, we have less than five minutes left to find it!" jack rushed out, clark swearing he heard mild fear in the android's voice, probably frol the possibility of failure, "i'll try to avoid renting models, but i can't promise anything."  
  
"don't worry about that, just find the fucking thing!"  
  
jack nodded, quickly walking over to one of the pole dancing models on the far end of the room, grabbing it's arm once it turned towsrds him; _customers looking for the right model, janitorial androids cleaning up, the deviant heading to the red room_.  
  
without even mentioning his sighting to clark, jack rushed towards the red room and the detective did his best to follow as the android went as fast as his robot legs could carry him, grabbing onto another pole dancing model's arm as he was doing his best to avoid forcing clark into purchasing models that he wasn't even going to do anything with; _more_ _customers, other models in their cells waiting to be rented......no HS600._  
  
"fuck, i lost it." jack spat under his breath, looking over to the androids in cells on his left and making his way over to them, looking over his shoulder to ask clark but the detective was already on his way over, silently renting one of the models and jack grabbed it's arm as soon as the cell door slid open; _customers and_ _the HS600 walking into the blue room._  
  
jack dashed into the blue room, looking around to see which model would've had the beat chance of seeing the deviant, only to find it was another rentable model and he called for clark, "you don't have to fucking sprint from room to room, you know?" the detective muttered as he walked over, "we don't have much time to find the deviant, i have to work fast." jack replied, clark just shaking his head a little as he "rented" the android, jack grabbing its hand as soon as he got the chance; _owner walking through, janitorial android cleaning up, HS600 hiding in a vacant room._  
  
jack rushed over to the room he saw the deviant enter, only for the door to slide open and show a completely empty room, the android exiting the room with a frustrated huff before his eyes landed on a janitor android, rushing over to it and putting his hand on its shoulder; _HS600 leaving through the staff door and into the storage unit_.  
  
"it's this way!" jack shouted, clark catching up to him as he went to the staff door, opening it and making their way down the long hallway that led to the storage area, jack putting his hand on the door knob and getting ready to enter, "get behind me, you've done a shit ton." clark ordered and jack backed away from the door, getting behind the detective as he pulled out his gun, slowly opening the door with his weapon in front of him, taking a few steps in before jack followed behind; the storage warehouse was full of unused models, waiting for the ones in use to need a replacement.  
  
"fuck, it's probably gone." clark sighed as he noticed that the huge metal gating that led to the outside was wide open, jack and him walking over to the opened area and looking around outside briefly, "no....there's no shoe prints and the snow isn't wet enough yet for them to be washed away. it's still here." the android muttered before walking away, going to explore the area.  
  
"this is fucking nuts; people use these androids 'till they break and then you got replacements at the ready. why get a human person when you can just fuck some plastic that will do anything for you? we're gonna go fucking extinct in like a decade, i swear to god."  
  
"would it make you feel better to know that cyberlife is working on a fertility project?"  
  
"so, we're gonna have a fucking generation of robo-babies? we're living in an apocalypse fantasy novel, i swear."  
  
jack shook his head at clark's comment, smiling a little to himself as he walked through the warehouse, looking over groups of androids that were waiting to be activated and used, seeing several HS600's but none that fit the description of the deviant; was it possible that it actually had managed to run off?   
  
just as that thought crossed his mind, a fading trail of thirium caught jack's eye, the android bending down and swiping a sample, analyzing it without clark seeing and determining that the blue blood belonged to an HS600, it was probably the deviant they were looking for considering that the victim had abused the other android enough to cause critical damage, the other one was bound to have an injury or two.  
  
jack followed the trail of thirium droplets, finding that they ended at a group of models in the back of the warehouse, looking closer and seeing one of the HS600's led was going between yellow and blue, it's hair also a bright pink and cut the exact same way the deviant's was; "detective, i--"  
  
jack's sentence was cut off as another HS600, one with long blonde hair, lunged at him, slamming him into the metal shelving behind them, "jack!" clark shouted, drawing his gun and getting ready to shoot, only to be attacked by the pink haired HS600, jack managing to shove the deviant off him and it stumbled back, falling over a crate but quickly sticking its foot out and tripping the android as jack climbed over the crate, it climbing on top of him and pinning him to the ground with it's weight, trying to land a few punches but being blocked each time, so it grabbed a screwdriver from nearby and slashed jack across the cheek, causing thirium to leak out and jack grabbed it's wrists as it tried to stab the tool into his head, managing to push it off him at the last second and scramble to his feet.  
  
the HS600 leaped at him again, jack dodging it's attack and grabbing it from behind, only for it to slam its head into his face and cause him to stumble back, the screwdriver falling from it's hand and it ran at jack, the android grabbing a nearby metal shelf at shoving it towards the deviant, only for it to catch it and throw back at him, the shelving falling to the floor with a clang and it kicked at jack, but he managed to block it's attack with a tool cart, shoving it back at the deviant and knocking it off balance, but it quickly recovered and grabbed a nearby computer case, with a computer inside, and smacked it against jack's head, causing some of his plastic to break and thirium to leak from his temple, but he caught himself from falling thanks to a metal hook that hunt from the ceiling, grabbing it and pulling himself back on his feet and kicking a cushioned stool at the deviant, the stool hitting it in the face and catching her off guard, jack taking his chance and lunging at it, the two of them falling through a plastic curtain and stumbling off the opened delivery door, jack landing onto snow-covered concrete with a grunt.  
  
out of the corner of his eye, jack saw the pink haired HS600 jump down from the ledge and rush over to the long haired model, helping it too its feet and grabbing its hand, clark jumping down from the ledge to help jack, but the pink haired model kicked him in the stomach and sent him to the ground, the detective's gun flying out of his hand and the deviants ran for the fence, jack scrambling to his feet and he ran at them, grabbing the pink haired one as it tried to climb the fence, yanking it down and the long haired one jumped at jack, the android shoving it off but the pink haired one grabbed an empty metal trash at slammed him in the face, causing him to stumble to the ground and jack's eyes landed on clark's gun, grabbing it and scrambling to his feet.  
  
time seemed to slow as the long haired HS600 ran to jack, his finger on the gun's trigger but he just couldn't seem to make himself fire the weapon, even though it was aimed directly at the deviant and he could end it all now; the deviant would be submitted for evidence and this would greatly help the investigation.  
  
but, jack chose to lower the weapon instead and the deviant kicked him to the ground, jack watching as she ran to the pink haired model and grabbed her hand, the android slowly getting to his feet and looking at the two; "when that man broke the other model......i knew he was going to destroy me." the pink haired HS600 spoke, voice shaking in anger and fear, "i begged for him to stop, but he wouldn't......so, i grabbed his neck and squeezed until he stopped moving."  
  
"......you _killed_ him."  
  
"i didn't want to! i-i just wanted to stay alive!" she cried, letting go of her lover's hand and stepping towards jack, "i wanted to be with her again.....to feel _safe_ with her." she continued and jack's heart twisted at the sight of tears in her eyes, "she made me forget about the humans that come here......their disgusting words and actions."  
  
jack said nothing, just watching the two as the blonde haired HS600 walked over to her partner, taking her hand again, "let's go." she whispered and neither clark or jack moved as the two deviants climbed over the fence, running away with their hands intertwined.  
  
jack turned to clark, expecting to be scolded for letting the deviants go or something along those lines, but the detective looked calm, no sign of negative emotion in his face, "......it's probably better this way." he muttered and jack went to respond, but he had no words, just silently handing the detective his gun and clark took it with a small smile, "let's get outta here, i probably got something you could wipe the blood off your face with." he spoke and jack nodded, wordlessly following his partner.  
  


**•◇•**

  
  
" _open the crates and fill your bags, we don't have much time but take as much as you possibly can_!" lexi messaged throughout the group, rue, mckay, and jules rushing over to the cyberlife warehouse crates and forcing them open, each android taking as much thirium and biocomponents as their bags could carry.  
  
"you are trespassing on private property."  
  
rue turned her head at an unknown voice, seeing a EN500 standing a few feet away and wearing a security uniform, "your presence constitutes a level two infraction." he added as he walked closer to the group, looking at the four deviants, "i will notify security."  
  
"ethan?! where the fuck did you go?!"

rue jumped at the human's shout, sharing a panicked look with jules before she lunged at the EN500---or ethan, covering his mouth with her hand and ducking behind a crate, the other androids following her lead as the human worker came towards them, " _we need your help_." rue messaged to ethan, hoping to get assistance from them, looking to jules who had a firm grip on a knife she had been using to open crates, clearly planning an attack, " _jules, don't._ "  
  
" _if he sees us--_ "  
  
" _he won't, do_ _ **not**_ _attack._ "  
  
jules looked up at rue, the two staring at each other for a moment before the blonde android looked away, "........ _fine_." she replied begrudgingly and rue nearly sighed in relief, keeping a firm grip on the EN500 as the human worker shined a flashlight in the area, "first the fuckin' drone and now this.....just my luck." he mumbled to himself before walking away, rue waiting until the man had walked several feet away before releasing him, everyone coming out of their hiding spots, " _let's keep going, we still don't have enough_."  
  
everyone nodded at lexi's order, continuing to pry open crates and steal what they needed, ethan just standing nearby and watching the group, but he was staying silent so nobody made a move to the EN500 to leave. rue's eyes fell on a large crate, the android climbing up the small ledge and walking over to it, prying it open with her knife, only to find three PB400 models packaged inside, ready to be shipped.  
  
".......why aren't you like us?" rue whispered, knwoing that she wouldn't get a response as the three androids were in a stasis; why weren't all androids aware of their oppression? here they were, packaged in an air-tight crate for shipment to a store where they'd be set up for display and bought by humans that probably wouldn't treat them with any respect.  
  
rue looked down at her hand, the skin peeling back and revealing white plastic, wanting to prevent these three from being turned into slaves that may never even be aware of their potential, she gently took on of their hands, "wake up." she ordered and the led of android's hand she was holding spun a bright yellow, blinking a few times and looking around, rue doing the same to the other two androids and backing away, turning around to see jules watching her with an impressed but small smile on her face.  
  
"that's all we can carry, let's go."  
  
rue and jules jumped back down onto the level mckay and lexi were on, ready to exit the warehouse and return to jericho, "take me with you!" the EN500 spoke up as the group began walking away, the four turning to look at him, "we can't trust him." jules immediately commented, "he took a big risk for us, we can't just leave him behind." mckay argued and rue looked to lexi, the two sharing a glance and lexi nodded a little, rue looking back to ethan and seeing the PB400'S stepping down from the ledge and walking towards the group, "they all come with us, they deserve to be free."  
  
the EN500 smiled at that, "i can help you get more spare parts." they informed and lexi's eyes widened, "where?" she asked, eager to know how she could help her people, "the shipping trucks; they are automatic but you can drive them if you have a key, which can be found on the control station." ethan spoke, pointing to a building a few feet away, "there's two human guards, though."  
  
lexi shook her head, not up for taking such a large risk when they already were really testing their luck, "that's a suicide mission! our bags are full, we should go before its too late."  
  
jules gawked at the android, shocked that she'd dismiss such an amazing opportunity, "lexi, its a _truckload_ of spare parts! we can't pass this up."  
  
"but, if we get _killed_ then jericho is left with nothing, it's way too risky to even _think_ of attempting!" mckay argued, rue looking back and forth between her companions before letting out a small sigh, knowing what had to be done, "i'll do it, wait here and if i'm not back in ten minutes, leave." she spoke in one breath before walking past the others, headed to the station but lexi grabbed her shoulder, "rue, this is--"  
  
"i'm doing this, lexi. it's too great of an opportunity to just let go of."  
  
jules stepped towards rue, "i'm coming with you." she spoke, but rue shook her head, "i have to go alone, it'd be too much if we both went." she muttered, giving the group a quick but reassuring smile before running off towards the security station, ignoring the barking of guard dogs and ducking down as she approached a window before quickly peaking inside, seeing two security workers at the front desk, a truck key sitting on said desk; _cause a distraction and retrieve key._  
  
rue crept towards another window, looking inside and seeing that it led to the bathroom, the android gently sliding it open before hopping inside, landing as softly as she could before creeping out of the bathroom and staying hidden behind a large cabinet, hearing the guards talking amongst themselves and her eyes landed on a gun inside the cabinet she was ducked behind, keeping that information as a last resort and looking at the other items in the cabinet, seeing a section full of miscellaneous tools and rue looked to her right, seeing a large cabinet that was filled with the machine that was keeping the electricity running; _perfect_.  
  
rue snatched a screwdriver from the tool cabinet, carefully stepping towards the electrical cabinet and pulling open the cabinet, stabbing the tool into the mess of wires, jumping back as sparks flew at her and she quickly ducked back into her hiding spot as the lights shut off; "what the fuck's going on?" one of the guards muttered before they got up from their desks, shining flashlights and the android made sure to stay out of the light, sneaking around the cabinets and up to the front desk, swiping the key and carefully but quickly making her way into the bathroom, hearing the guards cursing about the obvious sabotage to the electrical system, but by the time they started searching for someone, she was already out the window and running back to the group.  
  
"holy shit, rue, did you get it?!" jules blurted out as she saw rue coming back, rue smiling at her as she held up the key, "let's get the fuck outta here."  
  


**•••**

  
  
"we brought back a whole truckload!" mckay shouted as he came back to jericho, the others following behind him with smiles just as wide as his, "we have more than enough biocomponents for everyone who needs them." lexi smiled, the other refugees of jericho overjoyed at the excellent news, "we couldn't have done it without rue."  
  
everyone's eyes fell on rue at jules' comment, almost as if they were expecting a speech from the new member and she moved towards the middle of the crowd, arms crossed over her chest as she gathered the words in her head, "i came to jericho in search of freedom, only to find the type of freedom where i have no master but we live in the dark, fearing that someone will find us as we wait for a change that will never come." she spoke, her words were rather dampening on the mood but deep down, everyone knew she was right; they were their own master's, but they were far from free.  
  
"i don't know about the rest of you, but i am not going to get on my knees and beg for humans to allow me to live. i know that we are miles more than what they tell us we are; we are alive, okay?! i'm not going to let them take that feeling away from me anymore!" rue exclaimed, determination filling her tone as the power of her words reached the crowd of androids, the group nodding along with her as they realized how sick they were of the mistreatment, "change won't come if we continue to sit here in silence; we will make them listen! we will get the things we're deserving of! we are _people_ and we will be free!"

**Author's Note:**

> don't mind the spelling/grammar mistakes. i'm lazy by nature and don't pay attention to things.


End file.
